l77l  7OTH 

JZm0 


Duke  University  Libraries 

Message  of  His 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #229 

1)^063^7 


MESSAGE 


OF 


HIS  EXCELLENCY  JOSEPH  E,    BROW;; 


TO    THE 


EXTRA  SESSION  OF   THE  LEGISLATURE, 


CONVENED   MiRCfl   IOTA,  1864, 

Upon  the   Currency  Act  ;  Secret  sessions  of  Con- 
gress; The  late  Coxsckii- in >x  Act;  The   un- 

CON.STITCTIO.VATITV  OF    THE    ACT  SUSPENDING 
THE    PRIVILEGE  OF  THE    V\THT  OF  HABEAS 
CORPUS,     IN    CASES    OF    ILLEGAL  AR- 
RESTS mad::  by  the  President  ; 
The  CAUSES  of  the  war   and  manner  of   conduct- 
ing   it;    And    the    terms    upon    which 

PEACE     SHOULD     BS     SOUGHT,      &C. 


HTOX,  NISBET,  HA  .  :,  SriTE  Printer 

MILt.1  .     G.\., 


-xrC*&BSB&SG 


PERKINS  LIBRARY 

Dolce    University 


Karc   Dook> 


Tnt  r  LvJYit.no  wlluw..- 

MESSAGE 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,    )  . 
MiLledgeville,  Ga.,  March  lOtii  1S64.      \ 

To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  : 

The  patriotic  zeal  exhibited  by  you  at  your  late  session, 
for  the  promotion  of  the  interest  and  protection  of  the  lib- 
erties of  the  country,  and  the  personal  kindness  and  official 
courtesy  which  I  received  at  your  hands,  and  for  which  I 
renew  my  thanks,  have  satisfied  me  that  laying  aside  all 
past  party  names,  issues  and  strifes,  your  object  as  legisla- 
tors is  to  discharge  faithfully  your  official  duties,  and  to 
sacrifice  all  private  interests  and  personal  preferences  to  the 
public  good.  In  view  of  these  considerations,  I  feel  that  I 
can  rely  upon  your  counsels  as  a  tower  of  strength  in  time 
of  darkness  and  gloom.  I  have  therefore  convened  you 
that  I  may  have  the  benefit  of  your  advice  and  assistance, 
at  this  critical  juncture  in  our  State  and  Confederate  affairs. 

TRANSPORTATION  OF  CORN  TO    INDIGENT    SOLDIERS  FAMILIES. 

Since  your  adjournment,  experience  has  shown  that  it  is 
not  possible  without  assistance    from  the  State,  which  will 
require  further  legislation,   for  the  agents  of  the  counties, 
where  there  is  great  scarcity  of  provisions,   to  secure  trans- 
portation   for  the    corn  purchased  in  South    Western  and 
Middle  Georgia,  to  the  places  where  it  is  needed.     To  meet 
this  difficulty,    I  respectfully  recommend   the    passage  of  a 
law,  authorizing  the  Quarter-Master  General  of    this  State, 
or  such  other  officer    as  the  Governor    may  from  time    to 
time  designate,    under  the  order    of  the  Governor,   to  take 
possession  of   and    control    any  of  the  Rail    Koads  in   the 
State,  with  their  rolling  stock,  or  any  other    available  con- 
veyance, and  require  that  corn  or  other  provisions    for  t he- 
needy  or  for    tiie  county    agents  .for  soldiers  families,    be 
transported  in  preference  to  all  other  articles  or  tilings,  ex- 
cepi  the  troops  and  the  supplies   necessary  for  the  support 
of  the  armies  of  the   Confederate   States,   and  that   the  act 
provide  for  the  payment  of  just  compensation,   for  the  use 
of  such  means  of  transportation,  while   in  possession  of  the 
authorized  officers    of  this    State — the   compensation  to  be 
paid  out  of  the  money  already  appropriated  as  a  relief  fund, 
by  the    agents  or  persons  at  whose  request  the  transporta- 
tion may  be  furnished. 

Experience  has  also  proved,  that  the  counties  of  North 
Eastern  Georgia  most  remote  from  the  Railroad,  cannot  ob- 
tain sufficient  means  of  transportation  to  carry  the  corn 
from  the  Rail  Road  to  the  place  of  consumption.  The 
scarcity  of  teams  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  their  horses  have 


r 


67838 


4 

been  taken    for  cavalry  service,  and   their  oxen  have   been 
impressed  for  beet' for  tin;  army.     Finding    tli.it  tin-re    v. 
likely  to  be  much    Buffering  in  that    section  tor  bread    for 
soldiers'    families.  1  ordered  the  enecgectic  Quarter  Master 

sneral  of  the  St;ite,  to  porehaae  teami  and  wagons,  by 
drafts  upon  the  military  fund,  and  aid  those  most  destitute 
and  most  remote  from  the  Rail  Road,  in  the  transportation 
of  the  corn.  If  this  action  is  approved  by  the  Legislature, 
as  I  trust  it  will    be,  the   teams  now  about  ready  for  us 

n  be  employed  in  this  service  for  a  portion  Or  the  year. 
It  not  approved  they  will  at  any  time  command  more  in 
the  market  than  they  cost  th<  State,  i! 'net  needed  lor  mili- 
tary uses. 

RELIEF  FUND    ITOB  RO&T>IER8'  FAMILIJ  3. 

I  am  satisfied  that  the  indigent  families  of  soldiers  in 
many  of  tbe  counties    ofth  ,  are   no1  receiving  the 

benefits  to  which  they  are  entitled,  on  account  of  the  neg- 
lect or  mismanagement  of  the  Inferior  Courts.  Sixmillioi 
of  dollars  have  hern  appropriated  for  this  purpose  for  the 
present  year.- which,  if  properly  applied,  is  sufficient  topre- 
atany  actual  Buffering,  Complaints  come  up  constantly 
;;t  adequate  provisions  are *T)Ot  made  lor  the  needy.  In 
many  cases,  I  have  no  doubt  the?e  complaints  are  well 
founded.  As  evidence  of  the  neglect  ol  part  of  the  Courts, 
it  may  be  proper  to  state,  that  great  as  the  destitution  is 
among  those  entitled  to  the  fund,  the  amount  due  for  the 
last  quarter  of  last  year,  has  not  in  some  cases  been  applied 
for.  Some  Courts  have  not  yet  sent  in  their  reports  of  the 
number  entitled  for  the  present    year,  so    as  to  enable   me 

to  have     the  calculation  made,     an  1    the  amount  due     each 

connty  ascertained.;  while- many  of  the  countieshnve  made 
no  application  for  any  part  of  the  fund  appropriated  for 
this  year. 

While  the  Govt  rnor  has  power  to  require  U\r  courts  to 
make  repot  ts  of  the  disposition  made  of  the  fund,  in 
where  he  s  it   is  being   improperly  applied,  and    to 

withhold  paym  inta  to  the  courts  in  such  cases;  he  has  no 
power  to  compel  the  courts  to  do  their  duty,  nor  can  he 
take  the  fund  from  them  and    appoint  any    other  person  or 

■  ■lit  to  distribute  it  among  those  for  whom  it  is  intended, 
[f  the  conns  fail  to  act,  the  law  makes  no  other  provision 
for  the  distribution  of  the  fund,  Unless  some  better  plan 
is  adopted,  I    am  the    obj  cts   of  the   Legislature 

Avill  be  very* imperfectly  carried  out   in  many  i  oun- 

ties,  and  the  needy  will  not  receive  the  be]  the  lib- 

eral provision  made  for  them    by  the  appropria  As  it 

may  be  d  provide   for  I  I  ive, 

reliable  .  a  the   count  u  rist  the  courts,  or  to 

take  charge  o!  tl  e  fund    in  cat  gleet    or  mismanage- 

ment by  rhern,  I  resj  ectfully  suggest  that  provision  should 
be  made   for    commissioning    all  such,    as  otficers  of  this 


State,  so  as  to  protect  them  against  conscription.  It  will 
be  impossible  to  relieve  the  needy,  if  our  most  valuable 
county  agents  are  taken  from  the  discharge  of  their  impor- 
tant duties  by  the  enrolling  ollicers  of  the  Confederacy.- 

Provision  should  also  be  ma/le  for  the  removal  from  of- 
fice, of  all  Justices  of  the  Inferior  Courts,  who  neglect  or 
refuse  to  discharge  their  duties  promptly  and  faithfully. 

*  COTTON  PLANTING. 

Having  on  former  occasions,  brought  the  question  of  far- 
ther restriction  of  cotton  planting  to  the  attention  of  the 
General  Assembly,  I  l'eel  a  delicacy  in  again  recurring  to 
that  subject.  The  present  prices  of  provisions  and  the 
great  importance  of  securing  a  continued  supply  of  the 
necessarie^of  life,  are  my  excuse  for  again  earnestly  recom- 
mending that  the  law  he  so  changed  as  to  make  it  highly 
penal  for  any  person  to  plant  or  cultivate,  in  cotton,  more 
than  one  quarter  of  an  acre  to  the  hand  till  the  end  of  the 
war. 

This  additional  restraint  is  not  necessary  to  control  the 
conduct  of  the  more  liberal  and  patriotic  portion  of  our 
people;  but  there  are  those,  who  lor  the  purpose  of  making 
a  little  more  money,  will  plant  the  last  seed  allowed  by 
law  without  stopping  to  enquire  whether  they  thereby 
endanger  the  liberties  of  the  people  and  the  independence 
ol  the  Confederacy. 

To  control  the  conduct  of  this  class  of  persons,  and  to 
the  extent  of  our  ability  to  provide  against  the  possible 
contingency  of  a  failure  of  supplies  in  future;  I  feel  it  to 
lie  an  imperative  duty,  again  to  urge  upon  your  considera- 
tion the  importance  of  the   legislation  above  recommended. 

ILLEGAL     DISTILLATION.     ' 

I  beg  leave  again  to  call  the  attention  of  the  General 
Assembly  to  the  illegal  distillation  of  grain  into  spirituous 
liquors.  So  great  are  the  profits  realized  by  those  engaged 
in  this  business,  that  the  law  is  evaded*  in  every  way  that 
ingenuity  can  devise;  and  I  am  satisfied-  that  the  evil  can 
not  be  effectually  suppressed  without  farther  and  more 
stringent  legislation.  Some -of  the  Judges  have  ruled  that 
the  act  passed  at  your  last  session,  does  not  give  tlfem  au- 
thority to  draw  and  compel  the  attendance  of  a  jury  out 
of  the  regular  term  time  of  the  Court,  to  try  the  question 
of  nuisance,  while  some  public  ollicers  have  shown  no 
disposition  to  act,  for  fear  of  incurring  the  ill-will  of  per- 
sons of  wealth  and  influence,  who  are  engaged  in  the  daily 
violation  of  the  law. 

Distillers  in  some  parts  of  the  State,  are  paying  ten  dol- 
lars per  bushel  for  corn  to  convert '  into  whiskey,  while 
soldiers'  families  and  other  poor  persons  are  suffering  for 
bread. 

P67838 


I  renew  the  expression  of  my  firm  conviction,  that  the 
evil  can  only  be  effectually  suppressed  by  the  seizure  of  the 
atill.«.    We  now  need  copper  ibf  I  I  the  State  1; 

au<i    for  military  uses,  and  1     i  thai    an  act 

be  passed,    authorizing  the  ^Governor  to    impress  all   the 
stiii>  in  r     ■         which  he    has  reasonable    ground  to  s 
pect  have  been    used  in  violation   of  the  law,  and  convert 
them  into  such  material  for  the    Road  and   implements 
war.  as  the  State  may  nee.],  and  that  he  he  authorized   to 
I  the  military  force"  '  J  to  accomplish  tin-  ob- 

ject, and  that  provision  be*  made  for  paying  the  owner  just 
compensation  for  such  stills  wjien  seized.  I  also  recom- 
mend that  provision  be  made  for  annulling  the  commission 
of  any  civil  or  military  officer  ol  this  State,  \\  ho  fails  to 
ercise  vigilance,  i  i  ';  to  discharge  his  duty  faithfully  in  tin' 
executiou  of  the  law  against  illegal  distillation. 

[MPRESSMENT  OF    PROVI8ION8, 

Since  your  last  session,  experience  has  proven  that  from 
<]istrn>!  of  the  currency  or  from  other  cause,  many' planter- 
have  refuse:!  in  sell  corn  or  other  provisions,  not  necessary 
for  their  own  use.  to  State  or  county  agents  for  the  market 
price  when  offered,  while  soldiers'  families  have  heen  suf- 
fering for  provisions. 

[  recommend  the  enactment   of  a  law  authorizing   State 

officers,  under  the  direction  of  the  Governor,  to  make  im- 
pressments of  provisions  in  all  such  cases,  ari'l  providing  for 
the  payment  of  just  compensation  to  the  owners  of  the 
property  impressed. 

'  si. ,\'.  .  PING  TO  1  ill".  ENEMY. 

The  official    reports  of  Federal  ollicers  are    said    to  show 
that  the    enemy  now  has  50,000    of  our  slaves   employed 
against  us.     [ftiiese  50,000  able  bodied  negroes   had  been 
carried  into  the  interior  by  their  owners,  when  the    enemy 
approached  the    locality  where  they  were    employed, 
put  to    work   clearing    laud  and    making    provisions, 
should  to-day  have  heen    50,000  stronger   and  the   enemy 
that  much  weaker,  making  a  difference  oi    lOO.QOOin   the 
presenl     relative  strength    oi  the  parties    to  the  struj 
When  a  nemo  man  worth  $1,000   upon  the  gold   has: 
capes,  to  the  enemy,  that  Bum  ol  the  aggr<  gate    wealth   of 

the  Slate,  upon  which  she  should  receive  taxes,  is  lost — one 

laborer  who  should  be  employed  in  the  production  of  pro- 
visions is  also    lost,  while  one   laborer  or  one  more  armed 

man  is  \AAvn  to  the   Itrength  of  the  enemy. 

It  is  therefore  unjustifiable  and  unpatriotic  for  the  owner 
to  keep  his  negroes    within  such    distance  of  the  enemy's 

lines,  as  to  make  il  easy  for  them  to   escape.      This    should 

not  be  permitted,  and  to  prevent  it  in  future  such  laws 
should  he  emu  led  as  may  he  necessary  to  compel  their  re- 
moval by  the  owner  in  such  case,  or  to  provide  for  their 
forfeiture  to  the  Scute. 


7 

.  No  man  has  a  right  to*  use  his  own  property  so  as  to> 
weaken  t)ur  strength, •diminish  our  provision  supply  and  add 
recruits  to  the  army  of  the  enemy. 

DESERTION  OF  OUR  CAUSE  15Y  REMOVALS  WITHIN  THE  ENEMY'S- 

LINE. 

I  am  informed  that  a  number  of  persons  in  the  portion  of 
our  State,  adjoining  to  East  Tennessee,  have  lately  remov- 
ed with  their  families  within  the- lines  of  the  enemy  ;  and 
carried  with  them  their  movable  property.  Those  persons 
have  never  been  loyal  to  the  cause  of  the  South  ;  and  they 
now  avail  themselves  of  the  earliest  opportunity  to  unite 
with  the  enemies  of  their  State. 

I  recommend  the  enactment  of  a  law,  providing  for  the 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  all. such  persons;  and  that 
all  such  property  be  sold,  and  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  ap- 
plied to  the  payment  of  damages  done  to  loyal  citizens  of 
the  same  section,  whose  property  has  been  destroyed,  by 
raids  of  the  enemy,  or  by  tinned  bands  of  tories. 
I  am  also  informed,  that  some  disloyal  persons  in'that  section, 
have  deserted  from  our  armies ;  or  avoiding  service  have 
left  their  families  behind,  and  gone  over  to  the  enemy,  ami 
are  now  under  arms  against  us.  I  am  happy  to  learn  that 
the  number  of  such  persons  is  very  small.  I  recommend  the 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  this  cla§s  of  persons  also,, 
and  in  case  they  have  left  families  behind,  that  area  charge- 
to  the  county,  that  no  part  of  the  relief  fund  be  allowed 
them  ;  but  that  they  be  carried  to  the  enemy's  lines,  anil 
turned  over  to  those  in  whose  cause  their  husbands  now 
serve. 

I  also  recommend  the  enactment  of  such  laws  as  snail 
forever  disfranchise  and  decitizenize  all  persons  of  both  clas- 
ses, should  they  attempt  to  return  to  this  State. 

THE  CURRENCY. 

The  late  action  of  the  Congress-of  the  Confederate  States 
upon  the  subject  of  the  currency,  has  rendered  further  leg- 
islation necessary  in  this  State,  upon  that  question.  It  cau 
•not  be  denied  that  this  act  has  seriously  embarrassed  the  fi- 
nancial system  of  this  Slate,  and  has  shaken  the  confidence 
of  our.people  in'  either  the  justice  of  the  late  Congress  or 
its  competency  to  manage  our  financial  affairs.  Probably 
the  history  of  the  past  furnishes  few  more  striking  instances 
of  unsound  policy  combined  with  bad  faith. 

The  Government  issues  its  Treasury  notes  for  SLOO,  and! 
binds  itself,  two  year-  after  a  treaty  of  peace  between  tbe 
Confederate  States  ami  the  United  States,  to  pay  the  bear- 
er that  sum,  and  stipulates  upon  the  face  of  the  note,  that 
it  is  fundable  in  Confederate  States  stocks  or  bonds,  ami 
receivable  in  payment  of  all  public  dues,  except  export  da- 
ties.  The  Congress,  while  the  war  is  still  progressing,  pas- 
ses a  statute  that  this  bill  shall  be  funded    in  about  forty 


days  or  one  third  of  it  shall  be  repudiated, and  that  a  tax  often 
per  cent  a  month  shall  be  paid  foxit  afterthat  time  l>y  the  lml- 
der,  and  it  shall  no  longer  be  receivable  in  pa]  pub- 

lic dues,  and  if  it  is  not  Ponded  by  the  1st  « » t"  January  next, 
the  whole  debt  La  repudiated.  Did  tin*  holder  take  the  note, 
with  any  Buch  expectation  ?  Was  this  the  contract,  and  is 
this  the  way  the  government  is  to  keep  its  taith  ?  Ifwi 
rid  of  the  old  issues  in  this  way,  what  guaranty  do  we  give, 
belter   faith,   in  demption   ol  the   n< 

in,  many  of  the  notes  have  the  express  promise  on  their 
that    they    shall  In*    funded  in    eight  per    cent  bonds. 
When  9     The  plain  import  is,  and  bo   Understood  by  all  at 

the    time      of  their    issue,  that     it  may  he  done  at  any  time 

before  the  day  fixed  on  the  face- of  the  note  for  its  payment. 
Witl  what  semblance  of  good  faith  then  does  the  govern- 
t,  before  that  time,  compel  the  holder  to  receive  a  i'»ur 
per  cent  bond  or  lose  the  whole  debt?  and  what  better  is 
this  than  repudiation  (  "When  was  it  ever  before  attempted 
))y  any  government,  to  compel  the  funding  ol  almost  the 
entire  paper  currency  of  a  country,  amounting  to  te\ 
eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  in  forty  days?  This  is 
certainly  a  new  chapter  in  financiering. 

The  country  expected  the  imposition  of  a  heavy  tax,  and 
.-ill  patriotic  citizens  wen-  prepared  to  pay  it  cheerfully  at 
any  reasonable  sacrifice;  but  repudiation  and  had  faith  were 
not  expected,  and  the  authors  of  it  cannot  he  held  guilt- 
less. 

The  expiring  Congress  took  the  precaution  to  discuss  this 
measure  in  secret  Bession  :  bo  that  the  individual  act  of  the 
representative  could  not  reach  bis  constituents,  and  none 
could  be  annoyed  during  its  consideration  by  the  murmurs 
of  public  disapprobation  being  echoed  hack  iiytotho  Legis* 
.  lative  Hall.  And  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  they 
fixed* the  day  for  the   assembling   of  their  bug  at  a 

time  too  late  to  remedy  the  evil,  or  afford  adequate  redress 
for  the  wrong. 

These  $ecrei  sessions  <>!  Congress  arc  becoming  a  blighting 

curse  to  the  count  rv.      They  are  used  as  a  convenient   iikwIo 

of  covering  up  from  the  people,  such  acts  or  expressions  of 
their  representatives    as  will  not  bear  investigation  in   the 
light  ol  day.    Almost  every  net  of  usurpation  of  pdwer,  or 
of  bad  faith,  has  been  conceived,  brought  forth  and  nurtur- 
ed, in  tecret session.     If  I  mistake  not,  the  British  Parliament, 
never  discussed  .1  single    measure   in    secret    session  during 
the  whole  period  of  the  Crimean  War.     Jmt  if  it  is  neces- 
sary to  discuss  a  few  important    military  measures,  such  as 
may  relate  to  the    movement    of  armies.  &c.,    in  secret  ses- 
sion, it  does  not  follow  that  discussions  of  questions  pertain- 
ing to  the  currency,  the  suspension    of  the  writ    of  Habeas 
Corpus,  and  the  like,  should  all    be  conducted  in    secret  ses- 
sion.    The    people   should  require  all  such  measures  to  be 


discussed  with  open  doors,  and  the  press  should  have  the 
liberty  of  reporting  and  freely  criticising  the  acts  of  our 
public  servants.  la  this  way  the  rejection  of  the  popular 
will  back,  upon  the  representative,  would  generally  cause 
the  defeat  of  such  unsound  measures,  as  those  which  are 
now  fastened  upon  the  country  in  defiance  of  the  will  of 
the  people. 

But  dismissing  the  past  and  looking  to  the  future,  the 
inquiry  presented  for  our  consideration  is,  how  shall  the 
State  authorities  act  in  the  management  of  the  finances  of 
the  State?  .  As  the  Confederate  States  Treasury  notes  con- 
Btitute.the  currency  of  the  country,  the  State  has  been  ob- 
liged to  receive  and  pay  them  out,  and  she  must  continue 
to  do  so.  as  long  as  they  remain  the  only  circulating  medi- 
um. The  present  Legislature  has  very  wisely  adopted  the 
policy,  in  the  present  depreciated  condition  of  the  currency, 
of  collecting  by  taxation  a  sufficient  sum  in  currency,  to 
pay  the  current  appropriations  of  the  State  Government, 
instead  of  adding  them  to  the  debt  of  the  State  to  be  paid 
in  future  upon  the  gold  basis.  If  the  State  issues  her  own 
bonds  and  puts  them  upon  the  market,  or  if  she  issues  her 
own  Treasury  notes  redeemable  at  a  future  day  in  her  bonds, 
she  adds  the  amount  so  issued  to  her  permanent  indebted- 
ness, and  defeats  the  policy  of  paying  as  she  goes,  as  her 
own  bonds  or  notes  would  then  be  out,  and  could  not  be 
redeemed  with  the  Confederate  notes  when  received  into  her 
Treasury. 

If  the  State  receives  in  payment  of  taxes  the  present 
Confederate  Treasury  notes,  they  will  be  reduced  in  amount 
one-third  by  act  of  Congress  after  1st  April. next,  and  the 
State  receiving  them  at  par  pays  a  Confederate  Tax  of  38| 
per  cent  upon  all  monies  that  pass  through  her  Treasury. 
This  of  course  cannot  be  submitted  to. 

The  repudiation  policy  of  Congress,  seems  therefore  to 
have  left  us  but  one  alternative,  and  that  is  to  receive  and 
pay  out  only  such  issues  of  Confederate  notes,  as  under  the 
acts  of  Congress  pass  at  par,  without  the  deduction  of  ooi 
or  any  other  per  cent  J3ut  as  we  are  obliged  to  have  funds 
before  the  time  when  the  new  issues  of  Confederate  notes 
can  go  into  circulation,  the  question  presented  is,  how  shall 
we  supply  the  Treasury  in  the  mean  time?  In  my  judg- 
ment the  proper  plan  will  be  to  issue  State  Treasury  notes, 
payable  on  the  25th  day  of  December  next  at  the  Treasury, 
and  in  each  of  the  more  important  cities  of  this  State,  in 
Confederate  Treasury  notes,  of  such  issue  as  may  be  made 
after  1st  April  next,  to  be  used  as  circulating  medium. 
This  enables  the  State  to  anticipate  the  new  issues,  and  use 
them  in  advance  of  their  circulation  by  Confederate  au- 
thority. The  new  Georgia  Treasury  notes  of  this  issue, 
would  be  just  as  good  as  the  new  issue  of  Confederate 
notes  ;  because  payable  in  them;  and  would    be  as  current, 


10 

in  payment  of  debts.     The  act  shouTd  provide  that  all  tax- 
es hereafter  flue  the  State  for  this  year,  shall    be  payabh 
the  Con  (('derate  Treasury  the  nevt  issue,  and  that 

they  shall  !»••  deposited  in  the  Treasury  when  collected,  to 
•redeem  the  Si  ryable  in  them.    The  act   should 

alsu  provide  chat  the  State  notea  shall  be  returned,  and  the 
Confederate  notea  received  in  place  of  them  within  three 
months  after  they  are  due,  or  thai  the  State  will  no  longer 
be  liable  for  their  payment.  This  would  prevent  holders 
from  laying  them  away,  and  refusing  i<>  bring  them  in  for 
payment  when  due, according  to  the  lerms  of  the  com' 
As  the  State  tax  is  not  due  until  next  fall,  there  witl  be  an 
abundanl  supply  of  the  new  Confederate  notes  in  circula- 
tion by  that  time,  to  obviate  all  difficulty  in  obtaining  them 
by  our  people  to  pay  the  tax. 

I  recommend  the  passage  ol  a  joint  resolution  authorizing 
the  <  lovernor  to  have  funded  in  t  he  Bix  per  cent  bonds,  pro- 
vided for  by  the  act  of  <  !ongress,  all  ( loniederate  notes  which 
may  remain  in  the  Treasury,  or  may  be  in  the  hands  of  any 
of  the  financial  agents  of  the  State,  alter  the  first  day  of 
April  next,  ami  to  sell  and  dispose  of  such  bonds  at  their 
.market  value  in  currency, wh'ch  can  be  made  available  in 

payments  to  he  made  hy  the  .Treasury,    and    CO    credit     the 

Treasurer  with  any  losses  that  may  accrue  by  reason  of  the 

failure  of  the  bonds  to  bring  par  in  the  market. 
ORPHANS'    ESI  \  i  ES. 

On  account  of  the  present  depreciated  valueof  the  Con- 
federate securities,  I  recommend  the  repeal  ol  the  law  which 
authorizes  Executors,  Ad  mi  nisi  rators  and  Trustees  to  ii 
the  funds  of  those  whom  they  represent  in  these  securities. 
As  the  law  stands,  it  enables  unscrupulous  fiduciary    8{ 
to  perpetrate  frauds  upon  innocent  orphans,  and  other  help- 
less, persons  represented  by  them,  and  in   effect  compels  or- 
phans, and  those    represented   by  trustees,  to    invest  their 
whole  est  ites  in  government  bonds,  which  no  other  cl 
required  to  do. 

FURLOUGHS    REFUSED. 

<>n  the  :J7i!i  of  February,  when  I  issued  my  Proclama- 
tion, calling  von  into  extra  Bession,  I  telegraphed  the  Sec- 
ret. i iv  ol  War.  and  a$ked  that  furloughs  be  granted  to  mem- 
bers in  military  service,  to  attend  the  session,  and  received 
a  reply  stating  that  it    had    "been   concluded    not  to  grant 

furloughs  to  attend  the  session,*'  that,    '  olliccrs    80  sihiated 

are  entitled  to  resign  and  may  so  elect." 

I  regret  this  determination  of  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment, as  it  places  mir  gallant  officers  who  have  been  elec- 
ted by  the  people  to  represent  them,  and  to  whom,  as  well 
as  their  predecessors  similarly  situated,  furloughs  were  nev- 
er before  denied,  in  a  position  where  it  costs  them  their 
commissions  to  attempt  to  discharge  their  duties  as  Ri  prc- 
sentatives  of  the  people. 


11 

TIIIS.  NSW  MILITIA    ORGANIZATION  'AND    CONSCRIPTION. 

Siuee  your  adjournment  in  December,  the  Adjutant  and 
Inspector  General,  under  my  direction,  has  done  al!  in  his 
power  to  press  forward  the  organization  of  the  militia  of 
the  State,  in  conformity  to  the  act  passed  for  that  purpose? 
arid  1  have  the  pleasure  to  state,  that  the  enrollments  are 
generally  made,  except  in  a  tew  localities,  where  proximity 
to  the  enemy  has  prevented  it ;  and  the  organizations  will 
soon  be> completed. 

At  this  Btagein  our  proceedings,  we  are  met  with  formi- 
dable obstacles,  thrown  in  our  way  by  the  late  act  of  Con- 
gress, whirh  subjects  those  between  17  and  <50  to  enroll- 
ment as  Conscripts,  for  Confederate  service.  This  act  of 
Congress  proposes  to  take  from  the  State,  as  was  done  on 
a  former  occasion,  her  entire  military  force,  who  belong  to 
the  active  list,  and  to  leave  her  without  a  force,in  the  differ- 
ent counties,  sufficient  to  execute  her  laws  or  suppress  ser- 
vile insurrection.  • 

Our  Supreme  Court  has  ruled,  that  the  Confederate  gov- 
ernment h;is  the  power  to  raise  armies  by  conscription,  but 
it  has  not  decided  that  it  also  has  the  power  to  enroll  the 
whole  population  of  the  State  who  remain  at  home,  so  as 
to  place  the  whole  people  under  the  military  control  of  the 
Confederate  government,  and  thereby  take  from  the  State* 
all  command  over  their  own  citizens,  to  execute  their  own 
laws,  and  place  the  internal  police  regulations  of  the  States 
in  the  hands  of  the  President.  It  is  one  thing  to  ''raise 
'armies",  and  another,  and  quite  a  different  thing,  to  put  the 
whole  population  at  home  under  military  law.,  and  "compel 
every  man  to  obtain  a  military  detail,  upon  such  terms  as 
the  central  government' may  dictate,  and  to  carry  a  military 
pass  in  his  pocket  while  he-  cultivates  his  farm,  or  attends 
•  to  his  other  necessary  avocations  at  home. 

Neither  g,  planter  nor  an  overseer  engaged  upon  the  farm, 
nor  a  blacksmith  making  agricultural  implements,  nor  a 
miller  grinding  for  the  people  at  home,  belongs  to,  or  con- 
stitutes any  part  of  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy;  and 
there  is  not  the  shadow  of  Constitutional  power,  vested  in 
the  Confederate  government,  for  co ascribing  and  putting 
these  classes,  and  others  engaged  in  home  pursuits,  under 
military  rule,  while  rhey  remain  at  home  to  discharge  these 
duties.  If  eonscriptipn  were  constitutional  as  a  means  of 
■raising  armies  hv  the  Confederate  government,  it  could  not 

i  •       «    %  ill 

be  constitutional  to  conscribe  those  not  actually  needed,  and 
to  be  employed  in  the  army,  and  the  constitutional  power  to 
"raise  armies",  could  never  carry  with  it  the,  power  in 
Congress  to  conscribe  the  whole  people,  who  are  not  needed 
for  the  armies,  but  are  left  at  home,  because  more  useful 
there,  and  place  them  under  military  government  atid  com- 
pel them  to  get  military  details  to  plough  in  their  fields* 
shoe  their  farm  horses,  or  to  go  to  mill. 


Ift 

Conscription  earned  to  this  extent,  is  the  eiseBce  of  mil- 
itary despotism  :  placing  all  ciril  rights  in  a  state  of  sub- 
ordinatioo  ti>  military  powar,  and  potting  theperaooal  free- 
dom of  each  individual,  in  civil  life,  at  the  will  of  the  chief 
of  the  military  power.  But  it  may  be  said  that  coascrip- 
tion  may  i  > ■:  upon  one  class  bb  legally  aa  another,  and  that 
all  cl  equally   Bubject   to  i  ia  undoubtedly 

true  It'  the  government  lias  a  right  to  conscribe  at  all,  it 
baa  a  right  to  conacribe  persona  of  all  classes,  till  it  has 
1  enough  to  supply  its  armies.  But  it  has  no  right  to 
go  farther  and,  conscribe  all.  who  arc,  by  ita  own  consent,  to 
remain  at  home  to  make  supplies.  Ii  it  considers  supplied 
necessary,  somebody  must  make  them,  and  those  who  do  it, 
being  mi  part  of  the  army,  should  be  exempt  from  conscrip- 
tion, and  the  annoyance  of  military  dictation  while  engaged 
in  civil,  and  not  military   pursuits. 

If  all  between*! 7  and  50  are  to  be  enrolled  and  placed 
in  constant  military  service,  we  must  conquer  the  enemy 
while  we  are,  consuming  our  present  crop  of  provisions,  or 
we  are  ruined  ;  as  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  old  men  over 
-30,  and  the  hoys  under  17,  to  make  supplies  enough  to  feed 

our  armiesand  people  another  year.  I  think  every  practi- 
cal man  in  the  Confederacy  who  knows  anything  about  our 
agricultural  interests  and  resources,  will  readily  admit 
this. 

It',  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not    the  intention  to  put  tin 
between  1*3  am!   IS  and  between  4~>  and  50,  into  service,  as 

solditrs,  hut  to  leave  them  at  home  to  produce  supplies,  and 

Occasionally  to  do  police  and  other  dut  ies.  within  the  State. 
which  properly  belong  to  I  he  militia  of  a  State  ;  or  m  oth- 
er words,  if  it  is  the  intention  simply  to  take  the  control  of 
them  from  the  State,  so  as  to  deprive  her  of  all  power, and 
leave  her  without  sufficient  force  to  execute  her  own  laws, 
oi-  suppress  servile  insurrection,  and  place  the  whole  mili- 
tia of  the  State,  not  needed  for  constant  service,  in  the  Con- 
federate armies,  under  the  control  of  the  President,  while 
engaged  in  their  civil  pursuits,   the  act    is  unconstitutional 

and  oppressive,  and  ought  not  to  he  executed. 

If  the  act  is  executed  in  this  State,  it  deprives  her  of  her 
Whole  iKt'in  militia,  as  OongreSS  has  so  shaped  it  as  to  in- 
clude the  identical   persons  embraced  in  the  act   passed  at 

your  late  session,  and  to  transfer  the  control  of  them  all 
from  the  State  to  the  Confederate  government . 

The  Slate  has  already    enrolled    these  persons    under    the 

solemn  act  of  her  Legislat  ure,  for  her  owu  defense,  and  it  is 
a  question  for  you  to  determine,  whether  the  necessities  of 
the  State,  her  sovereignty  and  dignity,  and  justice  to  those 
who  are  to  be  affected  by  the  act,  do  not  forbid  that  she 
should  permit  her  organization  to  be  broken  up,  and  her 
means  of  self-preservation  to  be  taken  out  of  her  hands.  If 
this  is  done,  what  will  be  our  condition  ?     I  prefer  to  an- 


13 

swer  by  adopting  the  language  of  the  present  able  and  pa- 
triotic Governor  of  Virginia  :  "A  sovereign  State  without 
a  soldier,  and  without  the  dignity  of  strength — stripped  of 
all  her  men,  and  with  only  the  form  and  pageantry  of  power 
— would  indeed  be  nothing  more  than  a  wretched  depen- 
dency, to  which  I  should  grieve  to  see  our  proud  old  Com- 
monwealth reduced.'' 

I  may  be  reminded  that  the  enemy  has  three  times  as 
many  white  men,^ble  to  bear  arms,  as  we  have,  and  that  it 
18  necessary  to  take  all  between  the  ages  above  mentioned, 
01"  we  cannot  keep  as  many  men  in  the  field  as  he  does. 

If  the  result  depended  upon  our  ability  to  do  this,  we 
must  necessarily  fail.  But.  fortunately  tor  us,  this  is  not 
the  case.  While  they  have  the  advantage  in  numbers,  we 
have  other  advantages  which,  if  properly  improved,  they 
can  never  overcome.  We  are-  tin;  invaded  parry,  in  the 
right,  struggling  for  all  we  have,  and  for  all  that  we  ex- 
pect our  posterity  to  inherit.  This  gives  us  great  moral 
advantage  over  a  more  powerful  enemy,  who^as  the  inva- 
ders, are  in  the  wrong,  and  are  fighting  for  conquest  and 
power.  We  have  the  inner  and  shorter  lines  of  defense, 
while  they  have  the  longer  and  much  more  difficult  ones. 
For  instance,  if  we  desire  to  reinforce  Dalton  from  Wil- 
mington, Charleston,  Savannah,  and  Mobile,  or  to  reinforce 
either  of  those  points  from  Dalton,  we  can  do  so  by  throw- 
ing trjops  rapidly  over  a  short  line  from  one  point  to  the 
other.  W  the  enemy  wishes  to  reinforce  Charleston  or  Chat- 
tanooga from  Washington  or  New  Orleans,  he  must  throw 
his  troops  a  long  distance  around,  almost  upon  the  circum- 
ference of  a  circle,  while  we  meet  them  with  our  reinforce- 
ments by  throwing  them  across  the  diameter  of  a  semi- 
circle. This  difference  in  our  favor  is  as  great  as  four  to 
one.  and  enables  us,  if  our  troops  are  properly  handled,  to 
repel  their  assaults  with  little  more  than  one-fourth  their 
number. 

In  consideration  of  these  and  numerous  other  advantages 
which  an  invade,l  people,  united  and  determined  to  be  free, 
always  lias,  it  is  not  wise  policy  for  us  to  undertake  to  keep 
in  the  field  as  large  a  number  as  the  enemy  has. 

It  is  the  duty  of  those  in  authority  in  a  country,  engaged 
in  a  war  which  calls  for  all  the  resources  at  command,  to 
consider  well  what  proportion  of  the  whole  population  can 
safely  be  kept  under  arms.  In  our  present  condition,  sur- 
rounded by  :  ,  and  our  ports  blockaded,  so  that  we 
can  place  but  little  dependence  apon  1; » i ■ : •  i ^ > i  supplies,  we 
are  obliged  to  keep  a  sufficient  number  of  men  in  the  agri- 
cultural fields,  to  make  supplies  for  our  troops  under  arms 
and  their  families  at  home,  or  we  must   ultimately  fail. 

The  policy  which  wop.  Id  compel  all  our  men  to  go  to  the 
military  field,  and  leave  our  farms  uncultivated  and  our 
workshops  vacant,  would  be  the  most  fatal  and  unwise  that 


14 

could  be  adopted.  In  that  ca*e,  the  enemy  need  only  avoid 
battle  and  continue  the  war  till  we  consume  the  supplies 
now  on  hand,  ami  we  would  be  completely  in  their  power. 
Then'  is  a  certain  proportion  of  a  people  in  our  condi- 
tion who  can  remain  under  arms,  and  the  balance  of  the 
population  at  home  can  support  them.  So  long  B8  that 
proportion  has  not  been  reached,  more  may  be  safely  taken; 
but  when  it  is  reached,  every  man  taken  from  the  Geld  of 
production,  and  placed  at  a  consumer  in  the  military  field, 
makes  us  that  much  weaker;  and  if  we  go  far  beyond  the 
iroportion,  failure  and  rain  are  inevitable,  as  the  army  must 
f«oon  disband,  when  it  can  do  longer  be  supplied  with  the 
Decessariea  of  life.    There  is  reason  to  fear  that  those  in 

authority  have  not  made  sale  calculations  upon  this  point, 
and  that  they  do  not  fully  appreciate  the  incalculable  im- 
portance of  the  agricultural  interests  in  this  struggle. 

We  are  able  to  keep  constantly  under  arms  two  hundred 
thousand  effective  men,  and  to  support  and  maintain  that 
force, by  cur  own  resources  and  productions,  lor  twenty 
years  to  come.  No  power  nor  State  can  ever  he  conquered 
so  long  as  it  can  maintain  that  number  of  good  troops.  W 
the  enemy  should  bring  a  million  against  us,  let  us  remem- 
ber, that  there  is  BUCfa  B  thing  as  whipping  the  fight  with- 
out lighting  it;  and.  avoiding  pitched  battles  and  unnecessa- 
ry collisions,  let  us  give  this  vast  force  time  to  melt  away 
under  the  heat  of  summer  and  the  snows  of  winter,  as  did 
Xerxes'  army  in  Greece,  and  Napoleon's  in  Russia,  and  the 
enemy's  resources  and  strength  will  exhaust  when  so  prod- 
igally used,  much  more  rapidly  than  ours  when  properly 
economised;  In  properly  economising  our  strength  and 
husbanding  our  resources,  lie  our  best  hope  of  - 

Instead  of  making  constant  new  drafts  upon  the  agricul- 
tural and  mechanical  labor  of  the  country  for  recruits  for 
the  army,  to  swell  our  numbers  beyond  our  present  muster 
rolls,  which  must  prove  our  ruin  if  our  provisions  fail,  1 
respectfully  submit  that  it  would  be  wiser  to  yut  tin    hoops 

the  army,  and  leave  men  enough  at  home  to  support 
them.  In  oth(  r  words,  compel  the  thousands  ol  j  oi  ng  offi- 
cers in  gold  lace  and  brass  buttons,  who  are  eonstanl  ly  seen 
crowding  our  railroads  and  hotels,  many  of  whom  can  sel- 
dom be  tound  at  their  posts,  and  thousands  of  straggling 
soldiers  who  are  absent  without  leave,  or  by  the  favoritism 

of  officers,  Whose  names  are  On  the  pay    rolls,  and  who  are 

not  producers  at  home,  to  remain  at  their  places  in  the  army. 
This  is  justice  alike  to  the  country,  to  the  tax-payer-,  to  the 
gallant  officers  who  stand  firmly  at  the  post  of  duty,  and 
the  gallant  soldiers  who  seldom  or  never  get  furloughs,  but 
are  always  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  When  they  are  en- 
during and  Buffering  so  much,  why  should  the  favorites  of 
power  and  those  of  their  comrades  who  seek  to  avoid  duty 
a,nd  danger,  be  countenanced  or  tolerated  at  home,  while 
their  names  stand  upon  the  muster  rolls  ? 


:i5 

If  all  who  are  able  for  duty,  and  wjio  are  now  nominally 
in  service  drawing  pay  from  the  Government,  are  compelled 
to  do  their  duty  faithfully,  there  will  be  no  need  of  com- 
pelling men  over'45  to  leave  their  homes,  or  of  disbanding 
the  State  militia  to  place  more  men  under  the  President's 
control. 

CONFLICT  WITH  THE    CONFEDERATE  GOVERNMENT. 

But  it  may  be  saia  that  an  attempt  to  maintain  ttye  rights 
of  the  State  will  produce  conflict  with  the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment. I  am  aware  that  there  are  those  who,  from  mo- 
tives not  necessary  to  be  here  mentioned,  are  ever  ready  to 
raise  the  cry  of  conflict,  and  to  criticise  and  condemn  the 
action  of  Georgia,  in  every  case  where  her  constituted  au- 
thorities protest  against  the  encroachments  of  the  central 
power,  and  seek  to  maintain  her  dignity  and  sovereignty  as 
a  State,  and  the  constitutional  rights  and  liberties  of  her 
people. 

Those  who  are  unfriendly  to  State  sovereignty,  and  desire 
to  consolidate  all  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederate 
Government,  hoping  to  promote  their  undertaking  by  ope- 
rating upon  the  fears  of  the  timid,  after  each  new  aggres- 
sion upon  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  States,  fijl  the 
newspaper  presses  with  the  cry  of  conflict,  and  warn  the 
people  to  beware  of  those  who  seek  to  maintain  their  con- 
stitutional rights,  as  agitators  or  partisans  who  may  embar- 
rass the  Confederate  Government  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war. 

Let  not  the  people  be  deceived  by  this  false  clamor.  It 
is  the  same  cry  of  conflict  which  the  Lincoln  Government 
raised  against  all  who  defended  the  rights  of  the  Southern 
States  against  its  tyranny.  It  is  the  cry  which  the  usur- 
pers of  power  have  ever  raised  against  those  who  rebuke 
their  encroachments  and  refuse  to  yield  to  their  aggres- 
sions. 

When  did  Georgia  embarrass  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment in  any  mutter  pertaining  to  the  vigorous  prosecution 
of  the  war?  When  did  she  fail  to  furnish  more  than  her 
full  quota  of  troops,  when  she  was  called  upon  as  a  State 
by  the  proper  Confederate  authority?  An<4  when  did  her 
gallant  suns  ever  quail  before  the  enemy,  or  fail  nobly  to 
illustrate  her  character  upon  the  battle  held  ? 

i<\w  can  not  only  repel  the  attacks  of  her  enemies  on  the 
field  of  deadly  conflict,  but  she  can  as  proudly  repel  the 
assaults  of  those  who,  ready  to  bend  the  knee  to  power  for 
position  and  patronage,  set  themselves  up  to  criticise  her 
conduct;  and  she  can  confidently  challenge  them  topointto 
a  single  instance  in  which  she  has  failed  to  fill  a  requisition 
for  troops  made  upon  her  through  the  regular  constitution- 
al channel.  To  the  very  last  requisition  made,  she  respon- 
ded with  over  double  the  number  required. 

She  stands  ready  at  all  times  to  do  her  whole  duty  to  the 


16 

cause  and  to  (he  Confederacy,  > » 1 1 r  while  she  does  this,  she 
will  never  cease  to  require  that  her  constitutional  right!  be 
respected,  and  the  liberties  of  her  people  preserved.  While 
the  deprecates  all  conflict  with  the  ('<<■  Govern- 

ment, if  to  require  these  be  '  ,  the  conflict  will  never 
did  til!  the  object  is  attained. 

"For  freed  i 
>  BequenthM  by  b 

■  ■..■!■  won. " 

will  be  emblazoned  jn  letters  of  living  light  upon  her  proud 
banners,  until  State  sovereignty  and  constitutional  liberty, 
as  well  as  Confederate  indej  endi  i  tablished. 

i  ll  i:  II  LDEA8   COR] 

i  cannol    withhold  the  expression  of  the  deep  m 
tioii  I  feel  at  the  late  action  of  Congress,  in  attempt;: 

icnd  the  privilege  ol  the  <  I  « i  i  *  • 

confer  u|  ident  powers  expressly  denied  to  him 

l»y  tli-  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  Mates.     Underprc- 

which  our  whole  people  ki 
exi>t  in  i  er  may  have  been  the  motives, our 

t,  and  .-it   the  ol  the  Execu- 

tive, flas  Btruck  ;i  feil  blow  ot  the  liberties  of  theSe  Sti 

The  ( "onstitutioo  of  the  ( lonfederate  Stairs  declares  that, 
"  Tiit-  privilegeof  the  writ  o(.7iabeas  corpus  shall  not  be  bus- 
pendeo,  unless  when  in   cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  the 
public  safety  may  require  it.*'     The  power  to  suspend  the 
habeas  corpus  at  all,  is  derived,  not  from  express  ami  direct 
delegation,  bul  from   implication  only,  and  an  implication 
ran  never  be  raised   in  opposition  to  an  express  restriction. 
In  case  of  any  conflict  between  the  two,  an  implied  power 
must  always  yield  to  express  restrictions    bpon  its  exercise. 
The  pOwer  to  suspend  the  privilege   < >  1  the  writ  of  habeat 
corpus  derived  l>v  implication,  must  therefore  be  always  lim- 
ited by  the  oppress  declaration  in  the  Constitution  that  : 
•'The  right  of  the  people    to  be   secure   in  their pcrs*mst 
•s.  papere,tand  effects,  against    unreasonable   Bt  arches 
and  seizures  shall  not  be  violated',  and  tio  warrants  shall  \ 
but    upon  probable   cause,  supported  by  oath  or  offirmatiotii 
and  particularly  describing  the  place  to  be  searcheoljtnnd  the 
persons  or  things  to  be  seized,"  and  the  further  declaration 
that,  "no  person  shall  be  deprived  ot  life,  liberty  or  proper- 
ty, without  due  process  of  law.*'     And  that, 

"In  all  criminal   pi  the  accused  shall  enjoy  the 

rigl  i  of  a  spcedv&nd  public  trial  by  an  impartial jitty  ol  the 

State  or  District  wl         I      crime  shall  have  been  commit- 

which  district  shall   have  been  previously  ascertained 

ivv,  and  to  be  informed  of  the  nature   and  cause  <  I  the 

;  to  be  Confronted  with    the  vi  .inst 

lulu  ;  to  pulsory  process   for  obtaining   witnesses 

in  his  favor ;  and  3  tan  CO  of  'counsel   for  his 

defense." 


17 

Thus  it  is  an  express  guaranty  of  the  Constitution,  that 
the  "  persons"  of  the  people  shall  be  secure,  and  "  no  war- 
rants shall  issue,"  but  upon  probable  cause,  supported  by 
oath  or  affirmation"  particularly  describing  "  the  persons  to 
be  seized;"  that,  "no  person  shall  be  deprived  of liberty, ^with- 
out due  process  of  law",  and  that, 'in  '^all  criminal  prose- 
cutions" the  accused  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  a  speedy  and 
'public  trial,  by  an  impartial  jury." 

The  Constitution  also  defines  the  powers  of  the  Execu- 
tive, which  are  limited  to  those  delegated,  among  which 
there  is  no  one,  authorizing  him  to  issue  warran ts  or  order 
arrests  of  persons  not  in  actual  military  service  ;  or  to  sit  as 
a  judge  in  any  case,  to  try  any  person  for  a  criminal  offense, 
or  to  appoint  any  court  or  tribunal  to  do  it,  not  provided  for 
in  the  Constitution,  as  part  of  the  judiciary.  The  power  to 
issue  warrants  and  try  persons  under  criminal  accusations 
are  judicial  powers,  which  belong,  under  the  Constitution, 
exclusively  to  the  judiciary  and  not  to  the  Executive.  His 
power  to  order  arrests,  as  Commander-in-Chief,  is  strictly  a 
military  power,  and  is  confined  to  the  arrest  of 'persons  subject 
to  military  power,  as  to  the  arrest  of  persons  in  the  army 
or  navy  of  the  Confederate  States;  or  in  the  Militia,  when 
in  the  actual  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  does 
not  extend  to  any  persons  in  civil  life,  unless  they  be  fol- 
lowers of  the  camp,  or  within  the  lines  ot  the  army.  This 
is  clear  from  that  provision  of  the  Constitution  which  de- 
clares, that, 

"  No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital,  or  other- 
wise infamous  crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictmcjit  of 
a  grand  jury,  execept  in  cases  arising  in  the  land  or  naval  for- 
ces, or  in  the  militia,  when  in  actual  service  in  time  of  war  or 
public  -danger."  But  even  here,  the  power  of  the  President 
as  Commander-in-Chief,  is  not  absolute,  as  his  powers  and 
duties,  in  ordering  arrests  of  persons,  in  the  land  or  navat 
forces,  or  in  the  militia,  when  in  actual  service,  are  clearly 
defined  by  the  rules  and  artu  les  of  war,  prescribed  bv  Con- 
gress. Any  warrant  issued  by  the  President,  or  any  arrest 
made  by  him,  or  under  his  order,  of  any  person  in  civil  life 
and  not  subject  to  military  command,  is  illegal,  and  in  plain 
nidation  of  the  Constitution  ;  as  it  is  impossible  for  Congress, 
by  implication,  to  coftfer  upon  the  President  the  right  to 
exercise  powers  of  arrest,  expressly  forbidden  to  him  by  the 
Constitution.  Any  effort,  on  the  part  of  Congress,  to  do 
this,  is  but  an  attempt  to  revive  the  odious  practice  of  or- 
dering political  arrests,  or  issuing  letters  de  cachet  by  royal 
prerogative,  so  long  since  renounced  by  our  English  ances- 
tors ;  and  the  denial  of  the  right  of  the  constitutional  judi- 
ciary to  investigate  such  cases,  and  the  provision  forcreating 
a  court  appointed  by  the  Executive,  and  changeable  at  his 
will,  to  take  jurisdiction  of  the  same,  are  in  violation  of  the 
great  principles  of  Magna  Charta,  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the 
2 


18 

kaibdai  corpus  act,  and  the  Constitution   of  the  Confederate 
,uon  which   botli   English   and  American   liberty 
rest ;  ana  are  but  an  attempt   to   revive  the  odious  Star- 
Chamber  court  of  England,  which,  in  the  hands  of  wicked 
kimrs.  was  a8ed  for   tyranical  purposes,  by  the  crown,  un- 
til it  was  finally  abolished  by   act  of  parliament,  of   L6th 
.  which  went  into  operation  on  the  fire 
L641.  •  This  set   has   ever   rince  been  regarded  as 
ol  the  great  bnlwarksol  English  liberty;  and  as  it 
"d  by  the  English  Parliament  to  secure  our  English  tu- 
tors against  the  very  same  character  of  arbitrary  an 
which  the  late  act  of  Congress  is  intended  to  authorise  the 
President  to  make,  1   append  Ja  copy  of  it  to  this  message, 
with  the  same  italics  and  small  capital  letters,  which  are 
used  in  the  printed  Copy  in  the  book  from  which  it  is  taken. 
Jt.  will  be  seen  that  the  court    of   "  Star-Chamber. "  which 
was  the  instrument  in   the  hands  of  the  English  king,  for 
investigating  his  illegal  arrests  and  carrying  out  his  arbitrary 
decrees,   was   much   more   respectable,  on  account  of  the 
character,  learning   and    ability    of  its  members,    than  the 
Confederate  Star-Chamber,  or  court  of  u  proper  officers," 
which  the  act  of  Congress  gives  the  President  power  to  ap- 
point, to  investigate  his  illegal  arrests. 

I  am  aware  of  no  instance  in  which  the  British  king  has 
ordered  the  arrest  of  any  person  in  civil  life,  in  any  other 
manner  than  by  judicial  warrant,  issued  by  the  established 
courts  of  the  realm,  and  in  which  he  has  suspended,  or  at- 
tempted to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  cor- 
j>i/y.  since  the  Bill  of  Rights  and  act  of  settlement  passed  in 
L689.  To  attempt  this  in  L864  would  cost  the  present 
reigning  Queen  no  less  price  than  her  crown. 

The  only  suspension  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
cotpus,  known  to  our  Constitution, and  compatible  with  the 
provisions  already  stated,  goes  to  the  simple  extent  of  pre- 
venting the  release,  under  it,  ot'persuns  whose  .uresis  have 
been  ordered  under  constitutional  warrants  from  judicial 
authority.  To  this  extent  the  Constitution  allows  the  sus- 
pension, in  case  <>|  rebellion  or  invasion,  in  order  that  the 
accused  may  be  certainly  and  safely  held  for  trial;  but  Con- 
gress has  no  right,  under  pretext  of  exercising  this  power, 
to  authorize  the  President  to  make  illegal  arrests,  prohibited 
by  the  Constitution  ;  and  when  Congress  has  attempted  to 
confer  such  powers  on  the  President,  if  he  should  order 
such  illegal  arnests,  it  would  be  the  imperative  duty  of  the 
judges,  who  have  solemnly  sworn  to  support  the  Constitu- 
tion, to  disregard  such  unconstitutional  legislation,  and 
grant  relief  to  persons  so  illegally  imprisoned  ;  and  it 
would  be  the  duty  of  the  Legislative  and  Executive  depart- 
ments of  the  States  to  sustain  and  protect  the  judiciary  in 
the  discharge  of  this  obligation. 

By  an  examination  of  the  act  ofCougress,  now  under 


19 

consideration,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  not  an  act  to  suspend 
the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  case  of  warrants 
issued  by  judicial  authority ;  but  the  main  purpose  of  the 
act  seems  to  be  to  authorize  the  President  to  issue  war- 
rants, supported  by  neither  oat/-  nor  affirmation,  and  to  make 
arrests  of  persons  not  in  military  service,  upon  charges  of  a 
nature  proper  for  investigation  in  the  judicial  tribunals  on- 
ly, arid  to  prevent  the  Courts  from  inquiring  into  such  ar- 
rests, or  granting  relief  against  such  illegal  usurpations  of 
power*  which  are  in  direct  and  palpable  violation  of  the 
Constitution. 

The  act  enumerates  more  than  twenty  different  causes  of 
arrest,  most  of  which  are  cognizable,  and  tryable  only  in 
the  judicial  tribunals  established  by  the  Constitution  ;  and 
for  which  no  uarranls  can  legally  issue  for  the  arrest  of  per- 
sons in  civil  life,  by  any  power  except  the  judiciary,  and 
then  only  upon  probable  cause,  supported  by  oath  or  affir- 
mation, particularly  describing  the  persons  to  be  seized; 
such  as  "treason" ''treasonable  efforts  or  combinations  to  sub- 
vert the  Government  of  the  Confederate  States,"  "conspira- 
cies to  overthrow  the  Government,"  or  "  conspiracies  to  re- 
sist the  lawful  authority  of  the  Confederate  States,"  giv- 
ing the  enemy  "  aid  and  comfort",  "  attempts  to  incite 
servile  insurrection,"  "  the  burning  of  bridges,"  "Railroad," 
or  "Telegraph  lines,"  "harboring  deserters,"  and  "other  of- 
fences against  the  laws  of  the  Confederate  States,"  &c,  &c. 
And  as  if  to  place  the  usurpation  of  power  beyond  doubt 
or  cavil,  the  act  expressly  declares  that  the  "suspension 
shall  apply  only  to  the  case  of  persons,  arrested  or  detained 
by  the  Presidenlt'the  Secretary  of  War,  or  the  General  offi- 
cer commanding  the  Trans  Mississippi  Military  Department, 
by  authority  and  under  the  control  of  the  President,"  in  the  cases 
enumerated  in  the  act,  most  of  which  are  exclusively  of 
judicial  cognizance,  and  in  which  cases  the  President  has  not 
the  shadow  of  Constitutional  authority  to  issue  warrants  or 
order  arrests,  but  is  actually  prohibited  by  the  Constitution 
from  doing  so. 

This  then  is  not  an  act  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the 
writ  ol  /'  rptttt  in  the  manner  authorized  by  implica- 

tion by  the  Constitution  ;  but  it  is  an  act  to  authorize  the 
President  to  make  illegal  and  unconstitutional  arrests,  in  cases 
which  the  Constitut  on  gives  to  the  judiciary,  an  I  denies 
to  the  Executive  ;  and  to  prohibit  all  judicial  interference 
for  the  relief  ol  the  citizen,  when  tyranized  over  by  illegal 
arrest,  under  letters  de  cachet  issued  by  Executive  authori- 
ty. 

Instead  of  the  legality  of  the  arrest  being  examined  in 
the  judicial  tribunals  appointed  by  the  Constitution,  it  is  to 
be  exam  in  d  in  the  Confederate  Star  Chamber;  that  is,  by 
officers  appointed  by  the  President.  Why  say  that  the 
* 'President  shall  cause  proper  officers  to  investigate"  the  legali- 


20 

tf  of  arrests  ordered  by  him  ?  Why  not  permit  the  Judges, 
whose  constitutional  right  and  duty  it  is  to  do  it  1 

We  are  witnessing  with  too  much  indifference  assump- 
tion! of  power  by  the  Confederate  Government  which  in 
ordinary  times  would  arouse  the  whole  country  to  in 
nant  rebuke  and  Btern  resistance.  History  teaches  us  that 
Bubmissioa  to  one  encroachment  upon  oonssitutional  liber- 
ty is  always  followed  by  another ;  and  we  should  not  for- 
that  important  rights,  yielded  to  those  in  power,  with- 
out rebuke  or  protest,  are  never  recovered  by  the  people 
without  revolution. 

If  this  act  is  acquiesed  in,  the  President,  the  Secretary 
of  War,  and  the  commander  of  the  Trans  Mississippi  de- 
partment nodes  the  control  of  the  President,  each  baa  the 
power  conferred  by  CSongress,  to  imprison  who  r  he 

chooses;  a::d  it  is  only  necessary  to  allege  that  it  is  dune 
on  account  of  "treasonable   efforts"  or  q\  "conspiracies  to 

•  the  lawful  authority  of  the   Confederate  Stal 
lor  "giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,"  or  other  of  the 
causi  ■  -t  enumerati  d  in  tin'  Statute,  and  have  a  sub- 

altern to  tile  bis  affidavit  accordingly,  after  tfu  arrest  if  a 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  sued  out,  and  no  Court  dare  in- 
quire into  the  cause  of  the  imprisonment.  The  Statute 
makes  the  President  and  not  the  courts  the  judge  oi  the 
sufficiency  of  the  cause  for  his  own  acts.  Either  of  you  or 
any  other  citizen  of  Georgia,  may  at  any  moment  (as  Mr. 
Vallandigham  was  in  Ohio)  be  dragged  from  your  homes  at 
midnight  by  armed  force,  and  imprisoned  at  the  will  of  the 
President,  upon  the  pretext  that  you  have  been  guilty  of 
some  offense  of  the  character  above  named,  and  no  court 
known  to  our  judicial y  can  inquire  into  the  wrong  or  grant 
relief. 

When  such  bold  strides  towards  military  despotism  and 
absolute  authority,  are  taken,  by  those  in  whom  we  have 
confided,  and  who  have  been  placed  in  high  official  position 
to  guard  and  protect  constitutional  and  personal  liberty,  it. 
is  the  duty  of  every  patriotic  citizen  to  sound  the  alarm,  and 
of  the  State  Legislatures  to  say,  in  thunder  tones,  to  those 

who  assume  tO  govern  US  by  absolute  power,  that  there  is  a 
point  beyond  which  freemen  will  not  pern.it  encroachments 
to  go. 

The  Legislatures  of  the  respective  States  are  looked  to 
as  the  guardians  of  the  rights  of  those  whom  they  represent, 
and  it  is  theirduty  to  meet  such  dangerous  encroachments  up- 
on the  liberties  of  the  people,  promptly,  and  express  their 
unqualified  condemnation,  and  to  instruct  their  Senators, 
and  request  their  Representatives  to  repeal  this  most  mon- 
strous act,  or  resign  a  trust,  which,  by  permitting  it  to  re- 
main on  the  statute  book,  they  abuse,  to  the  injury  ot  those 
who  have  honored  them  with  their  confidence  in  this  trying 
period  of  our  history.     I  earnestly  recommend  that  the  Leg- 


ai 

islature  of  this  State  take  prompt  action  upon  this  subject, 
and  stamp  the  act  with  the  seal  of  their  indignant  rebuke. 

Can  the  President  no  longer  trust  the  judiciary  with  the 
exercise  of  the  legitimate  powers  conferred  upon  it  by  the 
Constitution  and  laws  ?  In  what  instance  have  the  grave 
and  dignified  Judges  proved  disloyal  or  untrue  to  our  cause? 
When  have  they  embarrassed  the  government,  by  turning 
loose  traitors,  skulkers  or  spies?  Have  they  not,  in  every 
instance,  given  thn  Government  the  benefit  of  their  doubts 
in  sustaining  its  action,  though  they  might  thereby  seem 
to  encroach  upon  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  for  a  time  de- 
ny substantial  justice  to  the  people?  Then  why  this  im- 
plied censure  upon  them? 

What  justification  exists  now  for  this  most  monstrous 
deed,  which  did  not  exist  during  the  first  or  second  year  of 
the  war,  unless  it  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  those  in  power 
have  found  the  people  ready  to  submit  to  every  encroach- 
ment, rather  than  make  an  issue  with  the  Government, 
while  we  are  at  war  with  the  enemy,  and  have,  on  that  ac- 
count, been  emboldened  to  take  the  step  which  is  intended 
to  make  the  President  as  absolute  in  his  power  of  arrest  and 
imprisonment,  as  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias  ?  What  re- 
ception would  the  members  of  Congress,  from  the  different 
States,  have  met  in  1861,  had  they  returned  to  their  con- 
stituents and  informed  them  that  they  had  suspended  the 
habeas  corpus,  and  given  the  President  the  power  to  impris- 
on the  people  of  these  States,  with  no  restraint  upon  Ins 
sovereign  will  ?  Why  is  liberty  less  sacred  now  than  it  was 
in  lSGl?  And  what  will  we  have  gained  when  we  have 
achieved  our  Independence  of  th.3  Northern  States,  if  in  our 
effort  to  do  so,  we  have  permitted  our  form  of  government 
to  be  subverted,  and  have  lost  Constitutional  liberty  at  home  ? 

The  hope  of  the  country  now  rests  in  the  new  Congress, 
soon  to  assemble.  They  must  maintain  our  liberties  against 
encroachment,  and  wipe  this,  and  all  such  stains,  from  the 
statute  book,  or  the  Sun  of  liberty  will  soon  set  in  darkness 
and  blood. 

Let  the  constituted  authorities  of  each  State,  send  up  to 
their  Representatives,  wheu  they  assemble  in  Congress,  an 
unqualified  demand  for  prompt  redress  ;  or  a  return  of  the 
commissions  which  they  hold  from  their  respective  States. 
Tin:  causes  of  the  war,  how  conducted,  and  who  respon- 
sible. 

Cruel,  bloody,  desolating  war  is  still  waged  against  us  by 
our  relentless  enemies,  who,  disregarding  the  laws  of  nations 
and  the  rules  of  civilized  warfare,  whenever  either  interferes 
with  their  fanatical  objects  or  their  interest,  have  in  numer- 
ous instances  been  guilty  of  worse  than  savage  cruelty. 

They  have  done  all  in  their  power  to  burn  our  cities,  when 
unable  by  their  skill  and  valor  to  occupy  them  ;  and  to  turn 
innocent  women  and  children,  who  may  have  escaped  death 


2-J 

by  the  shells  thrown  among  thorn,  without  previous  notice, 
into  the  estitute  of  homes,  food  sod  clothing. 

Theyhave  devastated  out  country,  wherever  their  unhal- 
ed  feet  have  trod  our  soili  burning  and  destroying  facto- 
ries,  mills,  agricultural  impl  and    other   valuable 
property. 

Ihey  have  cruelly  treated  mir  son's  while  in  captivity, 
and  in  violation  of  a  cartel  upon,  have  refused  to  ex- 

change them  with  us.  for  their  iiw  ii  soldiers,  unless  we  would 
consent!  against  the  laws  of  nations,  to  exchange  our  si i 
as  belligerents,  when  induced  or  forced  by  them,  to  take  up 
arms  against  us. 

They  have  done  all  i::  their  power  to  incite  our  slaves  to 
insurrection  and  murder,  and  when  unable  to  seduce  them 
from  their  loyalty,  have,  when  they  occupied  our  country, 
Compelled  them  to  engage  in  war  against  us. 

They  have  robbed  us  of  out  negro  women  and  children 

who  were  comfortable  contented  and  happy  with  their 
owners,  and  under  pretext  of  extraordinary   philanthropy, 

have  in  the  name  of  liberty  congregated  thousands  of  them 
together  in  places  where  they  could  have  neither  the  com- 
forts nor  the  necessaries  ol  life,  there  neglected  and  de- 
spised to  die  by  pestilence  and  hunger. 

In  numerous  instances  their  brutal  soldiers  have  violated 
the  persons  of  our  innocent  ami  helpless  woinen:"and  hare 
desecrated  the  graves  of  our  ancestors  and  polluted  and  de- 
tiled  the  altars  which  we  have  dedicated  to  I  he  worship  of 
the  living  God. 

In  addition  to  these  and  other  enormith-s  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  valuable  lives,  both  North  and  South,  have 
been  sacrificed,  causing  the  shriek  of  the  mother,  the  wail 
of  the  widow  and  the  cry  of  the  orphan  to  ascend  to  Heav- 
en from  almost  every  hearthstone  in  all  the  broad  land 
once  known  as  the  United  States. 

Such  is  but  a  faint  picture  of  the  devastation,  cruelty 
ami  bloodshed  which  have  marked  this  struggle. 

War  in  is  most  mitigated  form,  when  conducted  accord- 
ing to  the  rules  established  by  the  most  enlightened  and 
civilized  nations,  is  a  terrible  BCOUrge  and  cannot  exist  with- 
out the  most  enormous  guill  resting  upon  the  heads  of 
those  who  hate  without  just  cause  brought  it  upon  the  in- 
nocent and  helpless  people  who  are  its  unfortunate  victims; 
Guilt  may  rest  in  unequal  degrees  in  a  struggle  like  this 
upon  both  parties,  but  both  cannot  he  innocent.  Where 
then  rests  this  crushing  load  of  guilt  r 

While  I  trust  I  shall  be  able  to  show  that  it  rests  not 
upon  the  people  nor  rulers  of  the  South,  I  do  not  claim' 
that  it  rested  at  the  commencement  of  the  struggle  upon 
the  whole  people  of  the  North. 

There  was  a  large  intelligent  and  patriotic  portion  of 
the  people   of  the    Northern  States,  led    by    such  men    as 


23 

Pierce,  Douglas,  Vallandingham,  Bright,  Voorhies,  Pugh, 
Seymour,  Wood  and  many  other  honored  names,  who  did 
all  in  their  power  to  rebuke  and  stay  the  Wicked  reckless 
fanaticism  which  precipitated  the  two  sections  into  this 
terrible  conflict.  With  such  men  as  these  in  power  we 
might  have  lived  together  in  the  Union  perpetually. 

In  addition  to  the  strength  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
the  North,  there  were  a  large  number  of  persons  whose  ed- 
ucation had  brought  them  into  sympathy  with  the  so  called 
Republican,  or  in  other  words  the  old  federal,  consolidation 
party,  who  would  never  have  followed  the  wicked  leaders 
of  that  party  who  used  the  slavery  question  as  an  hobby 
upon  which  to  ride  into  power,  and  who  to-day  stand  be- 
fore Heaven  and  earth  guilty  of  shedding  the  blood  of  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  and  destroying  the  brightest  hopes  of 
posterity,  had  they  known  the  true  objects  of  their  lead- 
ers and  the  results  which  must  follow  the  triumph  of  their 
policy  at  the  ballot  box. 

The  moral  guilt  of  this  war  rested  then  in  its  incipiency 
neither  upon  the  people  of  the  South  nor  upon  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  the  North,  or  upon  that  part  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  who  were  deluded  and  deceived.  But  it  rested 
upon  the  heads  of  the  wicked  leaders  of  the  Republican 
party,  who  had  refused  to  be  bound  by  the  compacts  of  the 
Constitution  made  by  our  common  ancestry.  These  men 
when  in  power  in  the  respective  States  of  the  North  ar- 
rayed themselves  in  open  hostility  against  an  important 
provision  of  the  Constitution,  for  the  security  of  clearly  ex- 
pressed and  unquestionable  rights  of  the  people  of  the 
Southern  States.  » 

Many  of  the  more  fanatical  of  them  denounced  the  Con- 
stitution, because  of  its  protection  of  the  property  of  the 
slaveholder,  as  a  "covenant  with  death  and  a  league  with 
Hell,"  aud  refusing  to  be  bound  by  it,  declared  that  a 
"higher  law"  was  the  rule  of  their  conduct,  and  appealed 
to  the  Bible  as  that  "higher  law."  But  when  the  precepts 
of  God  in  favor  of  slavery  were  found  in  both  the  old  and 
the  new  testament,  they  repudiated  the  Bible  and  its  Di- 
vine Author  and  declared  for  an  anti-Slavery  Bible  and  an 
anti-Slavery   God. 

The  abolition  party  having  when  in  power,  in  their  re- 
spective States,  set  at  naught  that  part  of  the  Constitution 
which  guarantees  protection  to  the  rights  and  property  of 
the  Southern  people,  and  having  by  fraud  aud  misrepresen- 
tation obtained  possession  of  the  federal  government,  the 
Southern  people  in  self-defence  were  compelled  to  leave 
the  Union  in  which  their  rights  were  no  longer  respected. 
Having  destroyed  the  Union  by  their  wicked  acts  and  their 
bad  faith,  these,  leaders  rallied  a  majority  of  the  people  of 
the  North  to  their  support,  with  a  promise  to  restore  it 
again  by  force.     Monstrous  paradox  !  that    a  Union   which 


24 

was  formed  upon  a  compact   between  sovereign  States,  be- 
ing eminently  a  creature  of  consent,  is  to  be  upheld  by / 
But  monstrous  as  it  is,  the  war  springs  ostensibly  from  this 

source — tins   is  its  origin,  its  bouI  and  its  life,  so  far  at 
shadow  of  pretext  lor  it  can  l>e  found.     In   their  mad  effort 
to  restore  by  force  a  Union  which  they  have  destroyed,  and 
to  save  themselves  from  the  just  vengeance  which  awaited 
them  t<»r  their  crimes,  the  abolition  leaders   in  power  I 
•d  up    the  continent     with  a  Maze  of    war  which 
royed  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  proper- 
ty, and  hundreds  of  thout  valuable  lives,  and  loaded 
posterity  with  a  deb;  which    must  cause  wretchedness  and 
poverty  for  generations  to  some.    And  all  for  what?    That 
fanaticism    mighl  triumph  over    constitutional    liberty 
achieved    by  the    great  men  of  1776,    and  that    ambitious 
men  mighl  have    place  and  power.    In  their  efforts  to   de- 
stroy our    liberties    the  people  of  the  North,  if  successful, 
would  inevitably  lose  their  own  by  overturning,  as  the] 
now  attempting  to  do,  the  great  principles  of  Republican- 
ism upon  which  constitutional  liberty    rests.     The  govern- 
ment in  the  hands  of  the  abolition    administration  is   HOW  a 
absolute  as  that  of  Russia, 

Unoffending  citizens  are  seized  in  their  beds  al  night  by 
armed  force,  and  dragged  to  dungeons  and   incarci 
the  will  of  the  tyrant,    because  they  have   dared  to   si 
for    constitutional  liberty  and  to  protest     against    military 
despotism. 

The  Habeas  Corpus  that  great  bulwark  of  liberty,  with- 
out which  no  people  can  be  secure  in  their  lives  persons  or 
property,  which  cost  the  English  several  bloody  wars  and 
which  was  finally  wrung  from  the-crown  by  the  sturdy 
Barons  and  people  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  ;  which  has 
ever  been  the  bi.asi  oi' every  American  patriot,  and  which 
I  pray  God  may  never,  under  pretext  of  military  necessity ,  be 
yielded  to  encroachments  by  the  people  of  the  Sooth,  has 
been  trampled  under  foot  by  the  Government  at  Wash- 
ington which  imprison-  at  its  pleasure  whomsot  ver  it  will. 

The  freedom  of  the    ballot  box  has    also   her;  \  ed, 

and  the  elections  have  Ik  en  carried  by  the  overawing  in- 
fluence of  military  force. 

Under  pretext  of  keeping  men  enough  in  the  field  fo 
subdue  the  South.  President    Lincoln  takes    care  to   keep 

enough  to  hold  the  North  in  subjection  also,  to  imprison 
or  exile  those  who  attempt  to  sustain  their  ancient,  rights 
liberties  and  usages,  and  to  drive  from  the  ballot  box  those 
who  are  not  subservient  to  bis  will  or  enough  of  them  to 
enable  his  party  to  carry  the  elections.  Can  an  intelli- 
gent Northern  Conservative  man  contemplate  this  stale  oi 
things  without  exclaiming,  whither  are  we  drifting  V  What 
will  we  gain  by  the  subjugation  of  the  South  if  in  our  at- 
tempt to  do    it  we  must  lose    our  own    liberties  and   rivet 


9* 


upon    ourselves  and  our    posterity  the    chains  of  military 
despotism  ? 

How  long  a  people  once  free  will  submit  to  the  despot- 
ism of  such  a  government,  the  future  must  develop.  One 
thing  is  certain,  while  those  who  now  rule  remain  in  power 
in  Washington,  the  people  of  the  Sovereign  States  of  Ameri- 
ca can  never  adjust  their  dillicultios.  But  war,  bloodshed, 
devastation  and  increased  indebtedness,  must  be  the  inevi- 
table result.  There  must  be  a  change  of  administration 
and  more  moderate  councils  prevail  in  the  Northern  States, 
before  we  can  ever  have  peace.  While  subjugation,  abo- 
lition and  confiscation  are  the  terms  offered  by  the  Federal 
Government,  the  Southern  people  will  resist,  as  long  as 
the  patriotic  voice  of  woman  can  stimulate^ Guerilla  band, 
or  a  single  armed  soldier  to  deeds  of  daring  in  defence  of 
liberty  and  home. 

I  have  said,  the  South  is  not  the  guilty  party  in  this 
dreadful  carnage,  and  I  think  it  not  inappropriate  that  the 
reasons  should  be  often  repeated  at  the  bar  of  an  intelli- 
gent public  opinion,  that  our  own  people  and  the  world 
should  have  "line  upon  line,"  "precept  upon  precept," 
"here  a  little  and  there  a  little,"  "in  season  and  out  of 
season,"  as  some  may  snppuse,  to  show  the  true  nature  of 
this  contest — the  principles  involved — the  objects  of  the 
war  on  our  side,  as  well  as  that  of  the  enemy,  that  all 
right  minded  men  everywhere  may  see  and  understand, 
that  this  contest  is  not  of  our  seeking,  and  that  we  have  had 
no  wish  or  desire  to  injure  those  who  war  against  us,  ex- 
cept so  far  as  has  been  necessary  for  the  protection  and 
preservation  of  ourselves.  Our  sole  object  from  the  be- 
ginning has  been  to  defend,  maintain  and  preserve  our  an- 
cient usages,  customs,  liberties  and  institutions,  as  achieved 
and  established  by  our  ancestors  in  the    revolution  of  1776. 

That  Revolution  was  undertaken  to  establish  two  great 
rights — State  Sovereignty — and  self  government.  Upon 
these  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  predicated,  and 
they  were  the  Corner  Stone  upon  which  the  Constitution 
rested.  The  denial  of  these  two  great  principles  cost 
Great  Britian  her  American  Colonies  which  had  so  long 
been  her  pride.  And  the  denial  of  them  by  the  Govern- 
ment at  Washington,  if  persisted  in,  must  cost  the  people  of 
the  United  Stutes  the  liberties  of  themselves  and  their  pos- 
terity. These  are  the  pillars  upon  which  the  temple  of 
Constitutional  liberty  stands,  and  if  the  Northern  people  in 
their  mad  effort  to  destroy  the  Sovereignty  of  the  Southern 
States,  and  take  from  our  people  the  rights  of  self-govern- 
ment, should  be  able,  with  the  strength  of  an  ancient 
Sampson,  to  lay  hold  upon  the  pillars  and  overturn  the  edi- 
fice, they  must  necessarily  be  crushed  beneath  its  ruins,  as 
the  destruction  of  State  Sovereignty  and  the  right  of  self- 
government  in  the   Southern  States,  by  the  agency  of  the 


26 

ernment,  necessarily  involves  the  like  destruc- 
tion in  the  Northern  Si  do  people  can  maintain 
je  rights  for  thenaselves  who  will  Bfaed  the  blcod  of  their 
neighbors  to  destroy  them  in  other*.  It  is  impossible  for 
half  the  States  ofa  Confederacy,  if  they  assist  the  central 
eminent  to  destroy  ihe  rights  and  liberties  <>l  the  other 
half,  to  maintain  their  own  rights  and  liberties  the 
central  power)  alter  it  has  crushed  their  C  i 

The  two  LMv.it  truths  announced  l>v  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  concurred  in  by  all  the 
great  men  ol  the  revolution  were.  1st,  "That  Governments 
derive  their  just  powers  from  the  content  of  the  Governed.11 
2nd,  "That  these  United  Oolonies  are,  and  of  right  ought 
to  be, free  and  independent  State*.11 

We  are  not  to  understand  by  the  first  great  truth,  that 
each  individual  member  of  the  aggregate  mass  composing 
the  State,  must  give  his  consent  before  he  can  be  justly 
governed  ;  or  that  the  consent  of  each,  or  a  particular  class 
of  individuals  in  a  State  is  necessary.  By  the  "governed" 
is  evidently  here  meant  communities  and  bodies  of  men  ca- 
pable of  organizing  and  maintaining  government.  The 
"consent  of  the  governed,"  refers  to  the  aggregate  will  of 
the  community  or  State  in  its  organized  form,  and  ex- 
pressed through  its  legitimate  and  properly  constituted  or- 
gans. 

In  elaborating  this  great  truth,  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  says,  that  governments  are  insti- 
tuted among  men  to  secure  certain  "inalienable  rights," 
that  "among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness;" "that  whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes 
destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  al- 
ter or  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new  government,  lay- 
ing its  foundation  on  such  principles,  and  organizing  its 
powers  iu  .such  form,  as  CO  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to 
effect  their  safety  and  happiness.5' 

According  to  this  great  fundamental  principle,  the  ,v 
erign  State*  of  America,  North  and  South,  can  only  be 
governed  by  their  own  consent,  and  whenever  the  Govern- 
ment to  which  they  have  given  their  consent,  becomes  de- 
structive of  the  greal  ends  for  which  it  was  formed,  they 
have  a  perfect   rfghl    t»  "abolish    it"  by  withdrawing    their 

consent  from  it,  as  the  Colonies  did  from  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, and  to  form  a  "new Government,"  with  its  foun- 
dations laid  On  such  principles,  and  its  powers  organized  in 
.such  form  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  etfect  their 
safety  and  happiness."'  Upon  the  application,  to  the  pres- 
ent controversy,  of  this  great  principle,  to  which  the  North- 
ern States  are  firmly  committed  as  the  Southern  States, 
Georgia  can  proudly  challenge  New  York  to  trial  before 
the  the  bar  of  enlightened  public  opinion,  and  impartial 
history  must  write  the  verdict  in  h  er  favor,  and  t  riumphant- 
ly  vindicate  her  action  in  the  course  she  has  pursued. 


27 

Not  only  the  Sovereign  States  of  America  have  hereto- 
fore recognized  this  great  truth,  but  it  has  been  recognized 
by  the  able  and  enlightened  Emperor  of  the  French,  who 
owes  his  present  elevation  to  the  "consent  of  the  governed." 

He  was  called  to  the  Presidency  by  the  free  suffrage  or 
consent  of  the  French  people,  and  when  he  assumed  the 
imperial  title,  he  again  submitted  the  question  to  the  "gov- 
erned" at  the  ballot  box,  and  they  gave  their  "consent." 

At  the  recent  treaty  of  peace  with  the  Emperor  of  Aus- 
tria, he  ceded  an  Austrian  province  to  France,  and  Napo- 
leon refused  to  "govern  it,"  till  the  people  at  the  ballot  box 
gave  "their  consent"  that  he  should  do  so. 

The  Northern  States  of  America  are  to-day,  through  the 
agency  of  the  despotism  at  Washington,  waging  a  bloody 
war  upon  the  Southern  States,,  to  crush  out  this  great 
American  principle,  announced,  and  maintained  in  a  seven 
yeais  war,  by  our  common  ancestry,  after  it  had  won  the 
approbation  of  the  ablest  and  most  enlightened  Sovereign 
of  Europe. 

In  discussing  this  great  principle,  I  can  but  remark,  how 
strange  is  the  contrast  between  the  conduct  of  the  Empe- 
ror Napoleon,  and  that  of  President  Lincoln.  Napoleon  re- 
fuses to  govern  a  province  till  a  majority  of  the  people  at 
the  ballot  box  has  given  their  consent.  Lincoln,  after  having 
done  all  in  his  power  to  destroy  the  freedom  and  purity  of 
the  ballot  box, announces  in  his  late  proclamation  his  determi- 
nation to  govern  the  Sovereign  States  of  the  South  by  force, 
and  to  recognize  and  maintain  as  the  government  of  these 
States,  not  those  who  at  the  ballot  box  can  obtain  the 
"consent  of  the  governed,"  or  of  a  majority  of  the  people, 
but  those  who  can  obtain  the  consent  of  one  tenth  of  the 
people  of  the  State.  Knowing  that  he  can  never  govern 
these  States  with  "the  consent  of  the  governed,"  he  tram- 
ples the  declaration  of  Independence,  under  his  feet,  and  pro- 
claims to  the  world,  that  he  will  govern  these  States,  not 
by  the  "consent  of  the  governed",  but  by  military  power, 
60  soon  as  he  can  find  one  tenth  of  the  governed  humiliated 
enough  to  give  their  consent. 

But  the  world  must  be  struck  with  the  absurdity  of  the 
pretext  upon  which  he  bases  this  extraordinary  pretension. 
He  says,  in  substance,  the  Constitution  requires  him  to 
guarantee  to  each  State  a  republican  form  of  government. 
And  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  this  provision  of  the 
Constitution,  he  proclaims  that,  so  soon  as  one  tenth  of  the 
people  of  each  of  the  seceded  States  shall  be  found  abject 
enough  to  take  an  oath  to  support  his  unconstitutional  acts, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  support  the  Constitution,  and  shall 
do  this  monstrous  deed,  he  will  permit  them  to  organize  a 
State  Government,  and  will  recognize  them  as  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  State,  and  their  officers  as  the  regularly  consti- 
tuted authorities  of  the  State.     These  he  will  aid  in  putting 


2S 

down,  driving  out,  expelling   and   exterminating,  the  other 
tenths,   if  they   <!o   not   likewise  take   the   prescribed 
oath. 

One-  '<  of  the  people  of  a  State  put  up  ami  aided  by 
military  force  to  rule,  govern  <>r  exterminate  nin&4en(hs! 
And  this  to  be  dour  under  the  guise  or  professed  object  of 
guaranteeing  republicanism !  What  would  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Adams,  Hancock,  or  even  Ham- 
ilton, have  said  to  this  kind  ol  republicanism?  What  say 
conservative  Northern  statesmen  of  the  present  day,  if 
permitted  to  speak  ?  Does  such  a  government  as  this  de- 
rive its  just  powers  from  the  '•consent  of  the  governed?" 
[si  i  their  understanding  of  the  republican  government, 
which  the  United  Stales  is  to  guarantee  to  each  State  1  li 
bo,  what  guaranty  have  they  lor  the  freedom  of  their  pos- 
terity ?  li  the  government  at  Washington  guarantees  Buch 
republicanism  as  this  to  Georgia  in  L864,  what  may  be  her 

ranty  to  Ohio  and  other  Western  States  in  1874  V 
The  absurdity  of  such  a  position,  on  constitutional  prin- 
ciples or  views,  is  too  glaring  lor  comment.  When  such 
terms  are  offered  to  them,  well  may  the  people  of  these 
States  be  nerved  to  defend  their  rights  and  liberties  at  eve- 
ry hazard,    under  every    privation,   and  to    the  last  extrem- 

But  I  must  notice  the  other  great  truth  promulgated  in 
the  declaration  of  1  ndepemlenct — "that  these  United  Col- 
onies, are,  and  ot .right  ought  to  he  free  and  independent 
Sua 

< teorge  the  Third  denied  this  great  truth  in  L776,  and  sent 
his  armies  into  Virginia,  the  Carolina*,  and  ( Seorgia,  to  crush 
out  its  advocates  and  maintain  over  the  people  a  govern- 
ment which  did  J. (it  derive  its    j><  avers'  from  the  "consent  of 

the  governed."     President  Lincoln,  in   1861,  has  made  war 

upon  t'he  same  States  and  their  Confederates,  to  crush  out 
the  same  doctrine  by  armed  force.      Yet  he  has  none  of  the 

apparent   justification   before   the    world  that  the  British 

King  had.  The  colonies  had  been  planted,  nurtured  and 
governed  by  (.teat   Britain.      As  States,  they  had  never  been 

independent  and  never  claimed  to  be.  This  claim  was  set 
up    for   the  first    time  in  the  declaration  of  Independence. 

Under  these  circumstances,  there  was  some  reason  why  the 
British  Crown  should  resist  it.  Hut  th«  great  truth  pro- 
claimed was  more  powerful  than  the  armies  and  navy  of 
Great  Britain. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1770,  our  fathers  made  this  declara- 
tion of  the  freedom  and  independence  of  the  States.  The 
revolution  was  fought  upon  this  declaration,  and  on  the  3d 
day  of  September  17S3,  in  the  treaty  of  peace,  •'His  Brit- 
anic  Majesty,  acknowledges  the  said  United  States,  to-wit : 
New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Rhode  Island  and  Pro- 
vidence Plantations,    Connecticut,  New  York,   New  Jersey, 


29 

Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina, South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  to  be  free,  sovereign  and 
independent  States  ;  that  he  treats  with  them  as  such,"  &c. 

On  and  after  that  day  Georgia  stood  before  the  world, 
clad  in  all  the  habiliments,  and  possessed  of  all  the  attri- 
butes of  sovereignty.  When  did  Georgia  lose  this  sover- 
eignty ?  Was  it  by  virtue  of  her  previous  compact  with 
her  sister  States  ?     Certainly  not. 

The  Articles  of  Confederationl>etween  the  colonies,  du- 
ring the  struggle,  set  forth  the  objects  to  be  attained,  and 
the  nature  of  the  bond  between  the  parties  to  it,  and  the 
separate  sovereignty  of  each  of  the  States  a  party  to  it,  was 
expressly  reserved.  Was  it  when  she,  with  the  other  States, 
formed  the  Constitution  in  17S7  ?  Clearly  not.  The  Con- 
stitution was  a  compact  between  the  thirteen  States,  each 
of  which  had  been  recognized  separately,  by  name,  by  the 
British  K^ng,  as  a  free  sovereign  and  independent  State. 

The  objects  and  purposes  for  which  the  federal  govern- 
ment was  formed,  were  distinctly  specified  and  were  all  set 
forth  in  the  compact.  The  government  created  by  it  was 
limited  in  its  powers  by  the  grant,  with  an  express  reserva- 
tion of  all  powers  not  delegated.  The  great  attribute  of 
separate  State  Sovereignty  was  not  delegated.  In  this  particu- 
lar, there  was  no  change  from  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion; Sovereignly  was  still  reserved,  and  abided  with  the 
States  respectively.  This  more  "perfect  Union,"  was  bas- 
ed upon  the  assumption  that  it  was  for  the  best  interest  of 
all  the  States  to  enter  into  it  with  the  additional  grant  of 
powers  and  guarantees — each  State  being  bound  as  a  sover- 
eign to  perform  and  discharge  to  the  others  all  the  new  ob- 
ligations of  the  compact,  it  was  so  submitted  to  the  peo- 
ple of  the  States  respectively,  and  so  acceded  to  by  them. 
The  States  Jid  not  part  with  their  separate  sovereignty  by  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution.  In  that  instrument  all  the 
powers  delegated  are  specifically  mentioned.  Sovereign- 
ty, the  greatest  of  all  political  powers,  the  source  from 
which  all  others  emanate,  is  not  amongst  those  mentioned. 
It  could  not  have  been  parted  with  except  by  grant,  either 
expressed  or  clearly  implied.  The  most  degrading  act  a 
State  can  do  is  to  lay  down  or  surrender  her  sovereignty.  In- 
deed it  can  not  be  done  except  by  deed  or  grant.  The  sur- 
render is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Constitution  amongst  the 
expressly  granted  powers.  It  cannot  be  amongst  those 
granted  by  implication  ;  for  by  the  terms  of  the  compact 
none  are  granted  by  implication  except  such  as  are  inciden- 
tal to,  or  necessary  and  proper  to  execute  those  that  are  ex- 
pressly granted.  The  incident  can  never  be  greater  than 
the  object — and  if  nothing  in  the  powers  expressly  granted 
amounts  to  sovereignty,  that  which  is  the  greatest  of  all 
powers,  can  not  follow  or  be  carried  after  a  lesser  one,  as  an 
incident  by  implication — and  then  to  put  the  matter  at  rest 


30 

forever,  it  is  expressly  declared,  that  the  powers,  not  delega- 
ted, arc  reserved  to  the  States  respectively  or  to  the  peonle. 
Sofefsignty,  the  greet  leurce  of  ;ill  power,  therefore  was 
left  with  the  Stair-  by  the  compact,  left  where  King 
left  it,  ami  left  where  it  bat  ever  since  remained,  and  will 
remain  forever  if  tin-  people  of  t  are  true  to  them- 
selves ami  trim  to  the  great  principles  which  their  forefath- 
ers achieved  at  Mich   cost  v\  \}\ l  anil  treasure  in  the  war 

of  L776. 

The  constitution  \vas  only  the   written  '  or  bond, 

between  the  sovereign  States,  in  which  th<  ts  were 

all  plainly  expressed,  ami  each  State  as  a  sovereign  pledged 
its  faith  to  its  State*,  to  observe  ami  keep  thes  ■  cove- 

nants. So  long  as  each  did  this,  all  were  bound  by  the  com- 
pact. But  it  is  a  rule  as  well  known  and  a--  universally  re- 
cognized in  savage  as  in  civilized  life — as  well  understood 
and  as  generally  acquiesced  in  between  sovereign  States,  as 
between  private  individuals,  that  when  one  party  to  a  con- 
tract refuses  to  be  bound  by  it,  ami  to  conform  to  its  re- 
quirements, the  other  party  is  released  from  further  compli 
ance. 

Without  entering  into  an  argument  to  show  the  manner 
in  which  the  Northern  States  had  perverted  the  contract, 
and  warped  its  terms  to  suit  their  own  interest,  in  the  en- 
actment and  enforcement  of  tariff  laws  for  the  protection  of 
their  industry  at  the  expense  of  the  South,  and  iu  the  en- 
actment of  internal  improvement  laws,  coast  navigation 
laws,  fishery  laws,  Are.,  4c,  which  were  intended  to  enrich 
them  at  the  expense  of  the  people  of  the  South,  1  need 
cite  but  a  single  instance  of  open,  avowed,  self-confessed, 
and  even  boasted,  violation  of  the  compact  by  the  Northern 
States,  to  prove  that  the  Southern  States  were  released  and 
discharged  from  further  obligation  to  the  Northern  States, 
by  every  known  rule  of  law,  morality,  or  comity. 

One  of  the  express  covenants  in  the  written  bond,  to 
which  the  Northern  States  subscribed,  and  without  which, 

as  is  (dearly  seen  by  reference  to  the  debates  in  the  Conven- 
tion which  formed  the  ( '(institution, (he South*  rn States  nev- 
er would   have  agreed  to  or  formed  the  compact,  was  in 

these  words  : 

"No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  o  e,  under 

the  laws  thereof, escaping  into  another,  shall  in  cousequence 
ill  ;mv  law  or regulation  therein  be  discharged  from  such  ser- 
vice or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  par  - 
ty  to  whom  such  Bervioe  or  labor  may  be  due." 

Massachusetts  and  other  abolition  States,  utterly  repudi- 
ated, annulled  and  set  at  naught  this  provision  of  the  Con- 
stitution; and  refused  either  to  execute  it  or  to  permit  the 
constituted  authorities  of  the  United  States  to  cany  it  out, 
within  their  limits. 

This  shameful  violation,by  Massachusetts,  of  her  plight- 
ed faith  to  Georgia,  and  this   refusal   to   be  bound  by  the 


31 

parts  of  the  Constitution,  which  she  regarded  burdensome 
to  her,  and  unacceptable  to  her  people,  released  Georgia, 
according  to  every  principle  of  international  law,  from  fur- 
ther compliance  on  her  part.  In  other  words,  the  Consti- 
tution was  the  bond  of  Union  between  Georgia  and  Massa- 
chusetts and  when  Massachusetts  refused  longer  to  be 
bound  by  the  Constitution,  she  thereby  dissolved  the  union 
between  her  and  Georgia. 

It  is  truthfully  said  in  the  declaration  of  Independence, 
that  "experience  hath  shown,  that  mankind  are  more  dis- 
posed to  suller  while  evils  are  sufl'erable,  than  to  right 
themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  ac- 
customed." So  it  was  with  Georgia  and  her  Southern  sis- 
ters in  this  case.  Though  Massachusetts  and  other  North- 
ern States,  by  their  taithless  acts  and  repudiation  of  the 
compact,  had  dissolved  the  union  existing  between  the 
States,  the  Southern  States  did  not  declare  the  dissolution  ; 
hoping  that  a  returning  sense  of  justice,  on  the  part  of  the 
Northern  States,  might  cause  them  again  to  observe  their 
constitutional  obligations.  So  far  from  this  being  the  case, 
they  construed  our  forbearance  into  a  consciousness  of  our 
weakness  and  inability  to  protect  ourselves,  aud  they  or- 
ganized a  grest  sectional  party,  whose  political  creed  was 
founded  in  injustice  to  the  South,  and  whose  public  declar- 
ations and  acts  sustained  the  action  of  Massachusetts  and 
the  other  faithless  States. 

This  party,  whose  creed  was  avowed  hostility  to  the 
rights  of  the  South,  triumphed  in  the  election  for  President 
in  1860.  The  election  of  a  federal  Executive  by  a  section- 
al party,  upon  a  platform  of  avowed  hostility  to  the  con- 
stitutional rights  of  the  South,  to  carry  out  in  the  Federal 
administration  the  doctrines  of  Massachusetts  and  other 
faithless  States,  left  no  further  ground  for  hope  that  the 
rights  of  the  South  would  longer  be  respected  by  the  Nor- 
thern States,  which  had,  not  only  the  Executive,  but  a  ma- 
jority of  the  Congress. 

The  people  of  the  Southern  States,  each  sovereign  State 
acting  for  itself,  then  met  in  convention,  and,  in  the  most 
nn  manner  known  to  our  form  of  government,  resum- 
ed the  exercise  of  the  powers  which  they  had  delegated  to 
the  common  agent,  now  faithless  to  the  trust  reposed  in  it. 

The  right  of  Georgia,  as  a  member  to  the  original  com- 
pact, to  do  this,  is  too  clear  for  successful  denial.  Aud  the 
right  of  Alabama  and  the  other  States,  which  had  been  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, is  equally  incontrovertable  ;  as  each  new  State  came 
into  the  Union  as  a  sovereign,  upon  an  equal  footing  in  all 
respects  whatever  with  the  original  parties  to  the  com- 
pact. 

The  Confederate  States  can  therefore  with  confidence 
submit  their  acts  to  the  judgment  of  mankind  ;  while  with 


32 

a  clear  conscience   th<  A  to   a  just    <"'d  to  maintain 

them  i"  their  course.    They  r  true  to  the  compact 

of  the  Union,  so  lone:  ;is  they  remained  mem  ben  of  it — 
their  obligations  under  it  wei  ■  -  v.  r  faithfully  performed, 
and*  no  breach  of  it  was  ever  laid  at  their  doof,  or  truly 
charged  against  them.  In  i  5  their  undoubted  right  to 

withdraw  from  the  Union,  win  tvenant  had  been  bro- 

ken by  the  Northern  States,  theysoughi  1 1  * »  war — do  strife. 
They  simply  withdrew  from  further  connection  with 
Belf-confesspa,  faithless  Confederates.  They  offered  do 
injury  to  them — threatened  non< — proposed  none — in- 
tended none.  If  their  previous  union  with  the  Southern 
States  liad  been  advantageous  to  them,  and  cur  withdrawal 
affected  their  inti  uriously,  they  ought  to  have  been 

truer  10  their  obligations.     They  had  no  ju  to  com- 

plain of  us*  the  breach  of  the  Compacl  was  by  themselves 
— the  vital  cord  of  the  union  v.  ed   by  their  own 

hands. 

A         the  withdrawal  of  the  I  .  the 

>n,  if  those  v  iss  dereliction  of  duty  had  caused 

it.  had  recousidered  their  own  acts,  and  offered  new  assu- 
rances for  better  faith  in  future,  the  question  would  have 
been   fairly  and  justly  put  to  the  3     ■   .  in  their 

reign  capacity  to  determine;  whether  in  view  of  their 

past  and  future  interest    and  safety,  they  should    renew  the 

union  with  them  or  not;  and  upon  what  terms,  and  guar- 
antees; and  if  they  had  found  it  to  be  their  interest  to  do 
so,  upon  any  terms  that  might  have  beer,  agreed  upon;  on 
the  principle  assumed  at  the  beginning,  that  it  was  for  the 
best  interest  of  all  the  States,  to  bo  bound  by  some  Com- 
pact of  union,  with  a  Central  Government  of  limited  pow- 
ers; each  State  faithfully  performing  its  obligations;  they 
would  doubtless  have  consented  to  it.  But  if  they  had 
found  it  to  be  their  interest  not  to  do  it,  they  would  not, 
and  ouurht  not  to  have  done  it.  For  the  first  law  of  nature 
as  applicable  to  States  and    communities,  as  to    individuals, 

is  selt-protectioo  and  Belf-preservation. 

Possiblv  a  new  government  might  have  been  formed  at 
that  time,  upon  the  basis  of  the  Germanic  Confederation; 
with  a  guaranty  of  the  complete  sovereignty  of  all  the  sep- 
arate Stales;  and  with  a  central  agent  or  government,  of 
more  limited  powers  than  the  old  one;  which  would  have 
been  as  useful  for  d. 'fence  against  foreign  aggression;  and 
much  less  dangerous  to  the  Sovereignty  and  the  existence 
of  the  States,  than  the  eld  one,  when  in  the  hands  of  abolition 
leaders,  had  proved  itselt  to  be. 

The  length  of  tine  for  which  the  Germanic  Confederation 
has  existed,  has  proved,  that  its  strength  lies  h.  what  might 
have  been  considered  its  weakness — the  separate  Sover- 
eignty of  the  individual  members;  and  the  very  limited 
powers  of  the  Central  Government. 


33 

In  taking  the  step  which  they  were  forced  to  do,  the. 
Southern  States  were  careful  not  to  provoke  a  conflict  of 
arms,  or  any  sorious  misunderstanding  with  the  States  that 
adhered  to  the  government  at>  Washington,  as  long  rs  it 
was  possible  to  avoid  it.  Commissioners  were  sent  to 
Washington  to  settle  and  adjust  all  matters  relating  to  their, 
past  connection,  or  joint  interests  and  obligations,  justly, 
honorably  and  peaceably.  Our  Commissioners  were  not 
received — they  were  denied  the  privilege  of  an  audience — 
they  were  not  heard.  Rut  they  were  indirectly  trifled  with, 
lied  to,  and  misled  by  duplicity  as  infamous  as  that  prac- 
ticed by  Philip  of  Spain  towards  the  peace  Commissioners 
sent  by  Elizabeth  of  England.  They  were  detained  and 
deceived  with  private  assurances  of  a  prospect  of  a  peace-1 
ful settlement  :  while  the  most  extensive  preparations  were 
being  made  for  war  and  subjugation.  When  they  discover- 
ed this  they  withdrew,  and  the  government  at  Washington 
continued  its  vigorous  preparations  to  reinforce  its  garrisons, 
ami  hold  the  possession  of  our  Forts,  and  to  send  armies 
to  invade  our  territory. 

Having  completed  his  preparations  for  war  and  refuse. 1 
to  hear  any  propositions  for  a  peaceful  adjustment  of  our 
difficulties,  President  Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation  de- 
claring Georgia  and  the.  other  seceded  States  to  be  in  rcbcl- 
?um, and  sent  forth  his  armies  of  invasion. 

In  rebellion  against  whom  or  what  ?  As  sovereign  States 
have  no  common  arbiter,  to  whose  decision  they  can  appeal 
when  they  are  unable  to  settle  their  differences  amicably, 
they  often  resort  to  the  sword  as  the  arbiter,  and  as  sover- 
eignty is  always  in  dignity  the  equal  of  sovereignty,  and  a 
sovereign  can  know  no  superior  to  which  allegiance  is  due, 
one  sovereign  may  be  at  war  with  another,  but  one  can 
never  be  in  rebellion  against  another. 

To  say  that  the  sovereign  State  of  Georgia  is  in  rebellion 
against  the  sovereign  State  of  Rhode  Island,  is  as  much  an 
absurdity  as  it  would  be  to  say  that  the  sovereign  State  of 
Russia  was  in  rebellion  against  the  sovereign  State  of  Great 
Britain  in  their  late  war.  They  were  at  war  with  each 
other;  but  neither  was  in  rebellion  against  the  other,  nor 
indeed  could  be,  for  neither  owed  any  allegiance  to  the  oth- 
er. 

Nor  could  one  of  the  Sovereign  States  be  in  rebellion 
against  the  government  of  the  United  States.  That  gov- 
ernment was  the  creature  of  the  States,  by  which  it  was 
created,  and  they  had  tie1  same  power  to  destroy  it  at  pleas- 
ure which  they  had  to  make  it.  It  was  their  common 
agent  with  limited  powers,  and  the  States  by  which  the 
agency  was  created  had  the  undoubted  right  when  it  abused 
these  powers  to  withdraw  them.  Suppose  by  mutual  con- 
sent all  the  States  in  the  Union  had  met  in  convention,  each 
in  its  separate  sovereign  capacity,  and  had  withdrawn  all 
3 


.  the  delegated  powers  fro?;i  the  federal  government,  and  all 
t h«>  States  had  refuted  to  send  Senators  or  Representatives 
to  Congress,  or  to  elect  a  Pr<  -id.  nr  ;  will  any  Bane  mao 
question  their  right  or  deny  that  Mich  action  01  tin-  States 
would  have  destroyed  the  federal  government  ?4  It"  so  the 
federal  government  was  the  creature  of  the  States  and  could 
exist  only  at  their  pleasure.  It  lived  and  breathed  only  by 
their  consent,  [f  all  tho  parties  to  the  compact,  bad  the 
right  by  mutual  consent  to  resume  the  powers  delegated  by 
them  to  the  common  agent  :  why  had  not  part  ot  them  the 
right  to  do  bo,  when  the  others  violated  the  compact  —  re- 
ed to  be  bound  longer  by  its  obi  j  and  thereby 
released  their  copartners  ¥  The  very  fact  that  the  States 
— by  which  it  was  formed,  could  at  any  time  by  mutual 
consent,  disband  and  destroy  the  federal  government,  shows 
that  it  had  no  original  inherent  sovereignty  <>r  jurisdiction. 

As  the  creature  of  the  Stales  it  had  only  BUCh  powers  and 
jurisdictions  as  they  gave  it,  and  it  held  what  it  had  at  their 

pleasure.  If  therefore  a  state  withdrew  from  the  Confed- 
eracy without  just  cause,  it  was  a  question  for  the  other 
sovereign  States  to  consider whal  should  be  their  future  re- 
lations towards  it ;  but  it  was  a  question  of  which  the  fed- 
eral government  had  not  the  shadow  of  jurisdiction.  So 
long  as  Georgia  remained  in  the  Inion,  if  her  citizens  had 
refused  to  obey  such  laws  of  Congress  as  it  bad  constitu- 
tional jurisdiction  to  pass,  they  might  have  been  in  rebel- 
lion against  the  federal  government  ;  because  they  resisted 
the  authority  over  them,  which  Georgia  had  delegated  to 
that  government  and  which  with  her  consent  it  still  poo- 
led. 1  Jut  if  Georgia  lor  just  cause,  of  which  she  was  the 
judge,  chose  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  and  resume  the 
attributes  of  sovereignty,  which  she  had  delegated  to  the 
United  Slates  Government,  her  citizens  could  no  longer  be 
subject  to  the  laws  of  the  Union,  and  no  longer  guilt 
rebels  if  they  did  not  obey  them. 

.    It  could  be  as  justly  said  that  the  principal  who  has  del- 
ted  certain  limited  [towers  to  his  agent  in  the  transaction 

of  his  business,  which  be  has  afterwards  withdrawn  on  ac- 
count of  their  abuse  by  the  agent,  is  in  rebellion  against 
the  agent;  <>r  thai  the  n  in  rebellion  against  his  ser- 

vant; or  the  landlord  against  his  tenant ;  because  he  has 
withdrawn  certain  privileges  for  a  time  allowed  i  hem,  as 
that  Georgia   is  in  rebellion,   against  her  former  agent  the 

.'.eminent  of  the   I  'nihd    Stales. 

These  1  understand  to  be  tin  indamental  doctrines 

of  our  republican  form  ot  government,  so  ably  expounded 
in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions  of  1798 and  17!)!), 
which  have  ever  since  been  a  text  book  of  the  true  republi- 
can party  of  the-  Tinted  States.  Departure  from  these 
principles  has  destroyed  the  federal  government,  and  been 
the  prolific  cause  of  all  our   woes.     Out   of  this  departure 


35 

has  sprung  the  doctrine  of  loyalty  and  disloyalty  of  the 
States  to  the  federal  government ;  from  which  comes  osten- 
sibly this  war  against  us;  which  is  itself  «t  war  with  the 
first  principles  of  American  constitutional  liberty.  It  in- 
volves the  interests,  the  future  safety  and  welfare  of  those 
States  now  deemed  loyal,  as  well  as  those  pronounced  dis- 
loyal. It  is  the  doctrine  of  absolutism  revived  in  its  worst 
form.  It  strikes  down  the  essential  principles  of  self-gov- 
ernment, ever  held  so  sacred  in  our  past  history,  and  to 
which  all  the  States  were  indebted  for  their  unparalleled 
career,  in  grwoth,  prosperity  and  greatness,  so  long  as  those 
principles  were  adhered  to  and  maintained  inviolate. 

If  carried  out  and  established,  its  end  can  be  nothing  but 
centralism  and  despotism.  It  and  its  fatal  corollary — the 
policy  of  forcing  sovereign  States  to  the  discharge  of  their 
assumed  constitutional  obligations,  were  foreshadowed  by 
President  Lincoln  in  his  inaugural  address. 

Now,  at  the  time  of  the  delivery  of'that  inaugural  address, 
it  was  well  known  to  him  that  the  faithless  States  above 
alluded  to,  and  to  whose  votes  in  the  electoral  college  he 
was  indebted  for  his  election,  had  for  years  been  in  open, 
avowed  and  determined  violation,  of  their  constitutional 
obligations.  This  he  well  knew,  and  he  also  knew  that 
the  seceded  States  had  withdrawn  from  the  Union,  because 
of  this  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  abolition  States  j 
and  other  anticipated  violations,  more  dangerous,  threaten- 
ed from  the  same  quarter.  Yet  without  a  word  of  rebuke, 
censure,  or  remonstrance,  with  them,  for  their  most  flagrant 
disloyalty  to  the  constitution,  and  their  disregard  of  their 
most  sacred  obligations  under  it,  he  then  threatened  and 
now  wages  war  against  us,  on  the  ground  of  our  disloyalty, 
in  seeking  new  sale-guards  for  our  security,  when  the  old 
ones  failed.  And  the  people  of  those  very  States,  whose 
disloyal  bands  had  severed  the  ties  of  the  Union — breaking 
one  of  the  essential  parts  of  the  compact,  have  been,  and 
are,  his  most  furious  myrmidons,  in  this  most  wicked  and 
unjust  crusade  against  us,  with  the  view  to  compel  the  peo- 
ple of  these  so  outraged  States,  to  return  to  the  discharge 
of  their  constitutional  obligations !  It  may  be  gravely 
doubted,  if  the  history  of  the  world  can  furnish  an  instance 
of  grosser  perfidy  or  more  shameful  wrong. 

But  while  the  war  is  thus  waged,  professedly  under  the 
paradoxical  pretext  of  restoring  the  Union,  that  was  a 
creature  of  consent,  by  force  ;  and  of  upholding  the  Con- 
stitution by  coercing  sovereign  States  ;  yet  its  real  objects, 
as  appears  more  obviously  every  day,  are  by  no  means  so 
paradoxical.  The  Union  under  the  Constitution  as  it  was, 
each  and  every  State  being  bound  faithfully  to  perform  and 
discharge  its  duties,  and  obligations,  and  the  central  gov- 
ernment confining  itself  within  the  sphere  of  its  limited 
powers,    is  what  the  authors,  projectors,  and  controllers,  of 


86 

this  war  never  wanted,  and  never  intended,  and  do  not 
now  intend  to  maintain. 

Whatever  du%rences  of  opinion  may  have  existed  at  the 
cm.'  nt.  among  our  own  people  ae  to  the  polu 

saion,  or    the  obj<  the    federal  government,    all 

doubt  has  be<  a  dispelled  by  the  Abolition  Proclamation  of 
President  Lincoln,    and  h  stion.    Maddened 

by  abolition  fanaticism,  and  deadly  bate  for  the  wli 
of  the  South,  lie  wages  war  not  for  the   restoration    ol 

m-rnot  for  the  support  ol  istitution,  i  the 

abolition  of  slavery  and  the  aubjugation.  and  aa  be  doubt- 
desires  ultin  irmination,  of  the  anglo-Korman 
in  the  Southern  States.     Dearly  beloved   by  him  a* 

by   love 
them,  than  by  Puritanic  hate  for  the  Cavaliers, the  Hug 

Iris!:,  w! 
the  veins  of  the  white  population  of  the  South*     Jin: 
era]  h,,  i    never   reverse   the  lav  hich 

must  b  •  d  »ne,  bel  ire  the 

the  whit  Bought  for  them 

l,v  thi  achieved,  would  r<  suit  In  thei 

turn  to  barbarism,  and  their   ultimate  extermination    I 
the  soil,  wh  ire  mosl  of  them   were  horn,  and  were   com- 
fortable and  cou tented,  under  the   guardian   care  of  the 
white  race,  before  the  wicked  crusade  was  commi  need. 

What  have  been  the  abolition  achievements  of  the  ad- 
ministration? The  mosl  that  has  been  claimed  by  then?, 
is,  that  they  have  taken  from  their  owners,  ami  set  free; 
J 00,000  negroes.  What  has  this  eost  the  white  race  of  the 
North  and  .South  '(  More  than  half  a  million  of  white  men 
slain,  or  wrecked  in  health,  beyond  the  hope  of  recovery, 
ami  an  expenditure  of  not  perhaps  less  than  four  thousand 
millions  of  dollars.  What  will  it  cost  at  this  rate  to  liberate 
nearly  4,000,000  more  of  slaves?  Northern  accounts  of 
the  sickness,  suffering  and  death,  which  have,  under  North- 
ern treatment,  carried  offso  large  a  proportion  oftho* 
free,  ought  to  convince  the  most  fanatical,  of  the  cruel  inju- 
ry they  are  inflicting  upon  the  poor  helpless  African. 

The  real  objects  of  the  war  aimed  at,  from  the  beginning, 

were,  and  are  m.t   SO  much  the   deliverance   of    the   African 

from  bondage,  as  the  repudiation  ofthe  great  American  doc- 
trine of  self-government,  the  subjugation  of  the  people  pf 

these  States,  and  the  confiscation  <»l  their  property.  To  car- 
ry out  their  fell  purpose  by  misleading  some  simple  mind- 
ed folks,  within  their  own  limits,  as  well  as  ours, perhaps, 

they  passed,  in  the  House  of  Representatives  ofthe  Federal 
Congress,  a  short  time  since,  the  famous  resolution  : 

••  That  as  oar  country,  and  the  very  existence  ol'  the  best 
'government  ever  instituted  by  man,  is  imperilled  by  the 
most  causeless  and  wicked  rebellion,  that  the  only  hope  of 
saving   the   country,  and  preserving  this  government,  is  by 


37 

the  power  of  the  sword,  we  are  for  the  most  vigorous  pros- 
ecution of  the  war,  until  the  Constitution  and  laws  shall  be 
enforced  and  obeyed,  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States;  and 
to  that  end  we  oppose  any  armistice,  or  intervention,  or 
mediation,  or  proposition  for  pace,  from  any  quarter-,  so  long 
as  there  shall  be  lound  a  rebel  in  arms  against  the  govern- 
ment, and  we  ignore  all  party  names,  lines  and  issues,  and 
recognize  hut  two  parties  to  this  war — patriots  and  traitors." 

Were  solemn  mockery,  perfidious  baseness,  unmitigated 
hypocrisy,  and  malignant  barbarity,  ever  more  conspicuous- 
ly combined,  and  presented  for  the  just  condemnation  of  a 
right  thinking  world,  than  they  are  in  this  resolution/pas- 
sed hy  the  abolition  majority  in  the  Lincoln  Congress? 
Think  of  the  members  from  Massachusetts  and  Vermont, 
voting  for  the  most  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  until 
the  Constitution  and  Jaws  shall  be  enforced  ami  obeyed,  in  all 
parts  of  the  United  States.  Think  of  the  acts  of  the  Leg- 
islature of  Massachusetts,  passed  in  1843  and  1855,  still 
standing  upon  her  statute  book,  setting  at  defiance  the  Con- 
slitution  and  laws.  What  would  become  of  these  States, 
And  what  would  become  of  their  members  themselves,  who 
have  upheld  and  sustained  these  violations  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  laws,  which  is  the  chief  reason  why  they  now  hold> 
their  seats,  by  the  votes  of  their  constituents,  if  the  war 
should  be  so  waged  ?  How  long  would  it  be  before  they 
would  ground  their  arms  of  rebellion  against  the  provision 
of  the  Constitution  which  they  have  set  at  naught,  and  give 
it  their  loyal  support?  What  would  become  of  their  Pres- 
ident and  his  cabinet,  and  all,  who  from  the  beginning  of  the 
v/ar,  and  before  that  time,  have  been  trampling  the  Consti- 
tution under  their  feet  '(  Were  the  war  waged,  as  they  thus 
declare  it  to  be  their  purpose  to  wage  it,  they  would  be  t\io 
first  victims  of  the  sword,  were  it  tirst  turned,  as  it  ought 
to  be,  against  the  first  offenders.  This  they  know  full  well. 
Obedience  to  the  Constitution,  is  the  last  thing  they  want 
or  intend.  Jlence  the  mockery,  baseness,  and  hypocrisy,  of 
such  a  declaration  of  purpose.  On  their  part,  it  is  a  war  of 
most  wanton  and  savage  aggression  ;  on  ours,  it  is  a  war  in 
defence  of  inalienable  rights,  in  defence  of  everything  for 
which  freemen  should  live,  and  for  which  freemen  may  well 
be  willing  to  die. 

The  inestimable  rights  of  self-government,  and  State  Sov- 
ereignty, for  which  their  fathers,  and  our  fathers,  bled  and 
Buffered  together,  in  the  struggle  with  England  for  Indepen- 
dence, are  the  same  for  which  we  are  now  engaged  in  this 
most  unnatural  and  sanguinary  struggle  with  them.  Those 
rights  an;  as  dear  to  the  people  of  these  States,  as  they  were 
to  those  who  achieved  them  ;  and  on  account  of  the  great 
cost  of  the  achierement,  they  are  the  more  preciously  cher- 
ished by  those  to  whom  they  were  bequeathed,  and  will 
never  be  surrendered  or  abandoned  at  less  sacrifice. 


If  no  proposition  for  peace  or  armistice  is  to  be  received, 
or  entertained,  bo  long  as  we  hold  arms  in  our  hands,  t<>  de- 
fend ourselves,  our  homes,  our  hearthstones,  our  altars, 
ami  our  birthright,  against  such  ruthless,  and  worse  than 
vandal  invaders,  be  it  so !  We  deem  it  due,  however,  to 
selves,  to  the  civilized  world,  and  to  those  who  shall 
come  after  us,  to  put  upon  record,  what  we  are  fighting 
tor;  ;hii1  to  let  ;ill  know,  who  may  now  <»r  In  reafter,  feel 
an  interest  in  knowing,  the  real  nature  <>f  this  conflict, 
that  the  heavy  responsibility,  of  such  Buffering,  desolation, 
and  carnage,  may  rest  where  it  rightfully  beloi 

It  is  believed  that    many  ol  the  people  of  the  Northern 
States   labor  under  the  impression,  that  no  propositions 
peaceful  adjustment   have  ever  been  made  by  us. 

President   Lincoln,  in    his    letter  to  the   "Uoconditio 
Union"  meeting  at  Springfield  last  summer,    stated  in  Bub- 
stance,  that  no  proposition  for  a  peaceful  adjustment,  of  the 
matters  in  strife,  had  ever  been  made  to  him  by  those  who 
were  in   control  of  the  military  forces  of  the  Confederate 

States;  but  if  any  such  should  be  made,  he  would  enter- 
tain and  give  it  his  consideration. 

This  was  doubtless.said  to  make  the  impression  on  the 
minds  of  those  not  well  informed,  that  the  responsibility  oi 

the  war  was  with  us.  This  declaration  of  President  Lin- 
coln stands  in  striking  contrast  with  that  above  quotod, 
from  the  republican  members  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. 

When  this  statement  was  made  by  President  Lincoln,  it 
was  well  known  to  him  that  our  commissioners,  sent  to 
settle  the  whole  matter  in  dispute  peaceably,were  refused  a 

hearing!      They  were  not  even    permitted  to  present    their 

terms ! 

This  declaration  was  also  made  soon  after  it  was  well 
known,  throughout  the  Confederate  States  at  least,  that  a 
distinguished  son  of  this  State,  who  is  a  high  functionary 
of  the  government  at  Richmond,  had  consented,  as  military 
commissioner,  to  hear  a  communication  in  writing  from 
President  Davis,  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  our  armies, 
to  President  Lincoln  himself,  with  authority  to  confer  up- 
on matters  therein  set  forth.     This  Commissioner,  sent  from 

the   head    of   our    armies,  was  not  granted  an  audience,  nor 

was  the  communication  he  bore  received.  That  communi- 
cation, as  was  afterwards  known,  related  to  divers  matters 
connected  with  the  general  conduct  of  the  war.  Its  nature 
however,  or  to  what  it  referred,  President  Lincoln  did  not 
know  when  he  refused  to  receive  it.  But  from  what  is  now 
known  of  it,  if  he  had  received  it,  and  had  heard  what  terms 
might  have  been  proposed,  for  the  general  conduct  of  the 
war,  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude,  that  the  discussion  of 
these,  and  kindred  topics,  might  have  led  to  some  more 
definite  ideas  of  the  aims    and  objects  of  the  war,  on  both 


39 

sides,  from  which  the  initiative  of  peaceful  adjustment 
might  have  sprung,  unless  his  real  purpose  be,  as  it  is  be- 
lieved to  be,  nothing  short  of  the  conquest,  and  subjugation 
of  these  States.  His  announcement,  that  no  offer  of  terms 
of  adjustment  had  ever  been  mule  to  him,  is  believed  to  be 
au  artful  pretext  on  his  part  to  cover,  and  hide,  from  the 
people,  over  whom  he  is  assuming  such  absolute  sway,  his 
deep  designs,  first  against  our  liberties,  and  then  against 
theirs. 

HOW     PEACE    SHOULD   BE   SOUGHT. 

In  view  of  these  difficulties,  it  may  be  asked,  when  and 
how  is  this  war  to  terminate  ?  It  is  impossible  to  say  when 
it  may  terminate  ;  but  it  is  easy  to  say  how  it  will  end. 
"We  do  not  seek  to  conquer  the  Northern  people,  and  if  we 
are  true  to  ourselves  they  can  never  conquer  us.  We  do 
not  seek  to  take  from  them  the  right  of  self-government,  or 
to  gpvern  them  without  their  consent.  And  they  have  not 
force  enough  to  govern  us  without  our  consent ;  or  to  de- 
prive us  of  the  right  to  govern  ourselves  The  blood  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  may  yet  be  spilt,  and  the  war  will 
not  still  be  terminated  by  force  of  arms.  Negotiation  mil 
finally  terminate  it.  The  pen  of  the  Statesman,  more  po- 
tent than  the  sword  of  the  warrior,  must  do  what  the  lat- 
ter Iias  failed  to  do. 

But  I  may  be  asked,  how  negotiations  are  to  commence, 
when    President  Lincoln    refuses  to  receive  commissioners 
sent  by  us  ;  and  his  Congress  resolves  to    hear    no  proposi- 
tion for  peace?     I  reply,  that  in  my  opinion,  it  is  our  duty 
to  keen  it  always  before  the  Northern  people  and    the  civil- 
ized world,  that  we  are  ready  to  negotiate  for  peace,    when- 
ever the  people  and  government  of  the  Northern  States  are 
prepared  to    recognize    the  great  fundamental  principles  of 
the  declaration  of  Independence,  maintained    by  our  com- 
mon ancestry — the  right  of  ail  self-government  and  the  sovereign- 
ty of  the  Stales.     In  my  judgment  it  is  the  duty  of  our  gov- 
ernment, after  each  important  victory  achieved  by  our  gal- 
lant and  glorious  armies  on  the  battle   field,   to  make  a  dis- 
tinct proposition    to    the    Northern  government  for  peace, 
upon  these  terms.     By  doing  this,  if  the  proposition  is  de- 
clined by  them,  we    will    hold    them  up  constantly  in   the 
wrong,  before  their  own  people  and  the  judgment  of  man- 
kind.    If  they  refuse  to  receive  the  commissioners  who  bear 
the  proposition,  publish  it  in  the  newspapers  ;  and   let  the 
conduct  of  their  rulers  be  known  to  the  people  ;  and  there 
is  reasonable  ground  to  hope  that  the  time  may   not  be   far 
distant  when  a  returning  sense  of  justice,    and  a   desire  for 
self-protection  against  despotism  at  home,  will  prompt  the 
people  of  the  Northern  States  to   hurl    from    power   those 
who  deny  the  fundamental  principle  upon  which  their  own 
liberties  rest,  and  who  can  never    be  satiated    with  human 
blood.     Let  us  stand  on  no   delicate   point   of  etiquette  or 


40 

diplomatic  ceremony.  If  the  proposition  18  rejected  a  d< 
time*,  let  us  tender  it  again  alter  the  next  victory  :  that  the 
world  may  be  reassured  from  month  to  month  tliar  we  are  noi 
responsible    for    the    continuance  of  this  devastation  and 
carnage. 

Let  it  l>e  repeated  again  and  again,  to  the  Northern  j 
pie,  that  all  we  ask,  is  that  they  recognize  the  great  princi- 
ple upon  which  their  own  government  rests, — tin   sovereign' 
ty  <>f' the  States:  and  let  our  awn  people  hold  our  own  ■_ 
ermnent  to  a  strict  account    for  every  encroachment  niton 
this  vital  principle. 

Heroin  lies  the  simple  solution  of  all  these  troub  i 
!:  there  be  any  doubt,  or  any  question  of  doubt,  as  to  the 
reign  will  of  any  one  of  all  tl  -  of  this  Confede- 

racy ,or  of  any  border  State  w  ,  titutions  are  similar  to 

ours,  not  in  the  Confederacy,  upon  the  Bubject  oftheirprea- 
ent  or  future  alliance,  let  all  armed  force   be  withdrawn  : 
and  let  that  sovereign  will  he  fairly  expressed  at  the  ballot 
box,  .by  the  legal  voters  of  the  State:  and  let   all    pai 
abide  by  the  decision. 

Let  each  Slate  have  and  freely  exercise,  the  right  to  de- 
termine its  own  destiny,  in  its  own  way.  This  is  all  that 
we  have  been  struggling  for  from  the  beginning;  It  is  i 
principle  that  secures  "  rights,  inestimable  to  freemen,  and 
formidable  to  tyrants  only." 

Let  both  governments  adopt  this  mode  of  eettlem< 
whiidi  was  bequeathed  to  them  by  the  .meat  men  ol  the  Rev- 
olution ;  and  which  has  since  been  adopted  by  the  Kmper- 
er  Napoleon  at  the  only  jast  mode  for  the  government  of 
•  s,  or  even  provinces,  and  the  ballot  box  will  soon 
achieve  what  the  sword  cannot  accomplish — restore  peace 
to  the  country;  and  uphold  the  great  doctrines  of  State 
ereignty  and  constitutional  liberty. 

It  it  is  a  question  ol  strife,  whether  Kentucky  or  Mary- 
land, or  any  other  State,  shall  cast  her  lot  with  the  United 
States,  or  the  Confederate  States,  theie  is  no  mode  of  set- 
tling il  so  justly,  with  so  little  cost,  and  with  SO  much  sat- 
isfaction to  hemw  n  people,  as  to  w  ithdraw  all  Military  force 
from  her  limits,  and  have  the  decision,  not  to  the  BWOrd,  but 
to  the  ballot  box.  [f  she  shouM  decide  for  herself  to  abol- 
ish slavery  and  go  with  the  North,  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment can  have  no  just  cause  of  complaint,  for  that  govern- 
ment had  its  origin  in  the  doctrine  that  all  itsjust  "  powers 
are  derived  from  the  consent  ol  the  governed",  and  we  have 
no  right  to  insist  on  governing  a  sovereign  State,  against 
her  will.  But  if  she  should  dvclAc  to  retain  her  institu- 
tions and  go  with  the  Soul  h,  as  w  e  doubt  not  she  will, when 

the  question  is  fairly  submitted  to  her  people  at  the  polls, 
the  Lincoln  government  must  acquiesce,  or  it  must  repudi- 
ate, and   trample    upon,  the    very    essential    principles  on 

which  it  was  founded,  and  which  were  carried  out  in   prac- 


41 

tice  by  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  for  the  first  half  century 
of  its  existence.  • 

What  Southern  man  can  object  to  this  mode  of  settle- 
ment? It  is  all  that  South  Carolina,  Virginia  or  Georgia 
claimed  when  she  seceded  from  the  Union.  It  is  all  that  eith- 
er has  at  any  time  claimed  and  all  that  either  ever  can  justly 
claim.  And  what  friend  of  Southern  Independence  fears 
the  result?  What  has  the  Abolition  government  done  to 
cause  the  people  of  any  Southern  State  to  desire  to  reverse 
her  decision  and  return  ingloriously  to  its  embrace?  Are 
we  afraid  the  people  of  any  seceded  State,  will  desire  to 
place  the  State  back  in  the  Abolition  union,  under  the 
Lincoln  despotism,  after  it  has  devastated  their  fields,  laid 
waste  their  country,  burned  their  cities,  slaughtered  their 
sons  and  degraded  their  daughters  ?  There  is  no  reaspn  for 
such  fear. 

But  I  may  be  totd  that  Mr.  Lincoln  has  repudiated  this 
principle  in  advance,  and  that  it  is  idle  again  to  tender  a 
settlement  upon  these  terms.  This  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  withhold  the  repeated  renewal  of  the  proposition. 
Let  it  be  made  again  and  again  till  the  mass  of  the  North- 
ern  people  understand  it  :  and  Mr.  Lincoln  can  not  contin- 
ue to  stand  before  them  and  the  world,  stained  with  the 
blood  of  their  sons,  their  husbands  and  their  fathers,  and 
insist,  when  a  proposition  so  lair  is  constantly  tendered, 
that  thousands  of  new  victims  shall  still  continue  to  bleed, 
to  gratify  bis  abolition  fanaticism,  satisfy  his  revenge,  and 
serve  hi-,  ambition  to  govern  these  States  upon  the  decis- 
ion of  one  tenth  of  the  people  in  his  favor,  against  the  oth- 
er niiu  hurt*.  Let  the  Northern  and  Southern  mind  De 
brought  to  contemplate  this  subject  in  all  its  magnitude; 
and  while  there  may  be  extreme  men  on  the  Northern  side, 
satisfied  with  uoflhiug  less  rhan  the  subjugation  of  the  South, 
and  the  confiscation  of  our  properly:  and  like  extremists 
on  the  Southern  side,  whose  morbid  sensibilities  are  shock- 
ed at  the  mention  of  negotiation,  or  the  renewal  of  an  offer 
by  US  for  8  settlement  upon  any  terms  ;  I  cannot  doubt  that 
the  cool-headed  thinking  men  on  both  sides  of  the  line,  who 
are  devoted  to  the  great  principles  of  self  government  and 
State  sovereignty,  including  the  sear-covered  veterans  of  the 
army,  will  finally  settle  down  upon  this  as  the  true  solution 
of  tin1  great  problem  which  now  embarrasses  so  many  mil- 
lions of  people,  and  will  find  the  higher  truth  between  the 
two  extremes. 

If,  upon  the  sober  second  thought,  the  public  seniiment 
North  sustains  the  policy  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  he  proposes 
by  the  power  of  the  sword  to  place  the  great  doctrines  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  of 
his  country  under  his  feet,  and  proclaims  his  purpose  to 
govern  these  States  by  military  power,  when  he  shall  have 
obtained  the  consent  of  one  tenth  of  the  governed;  how  can 


4-2 

the  samp  public  sentiment  condemn  him,  if.  at  the  bead  of 
irmiea  he  shall  proclaim  himself  Emperor  of  the 
whole  country  ;  and  submit  tin'  question  to  the  vote  of  the 
Northern  people,  and  when  be  hai  obtained,  as  he  could  ea- 
sily do,  the  vote  ol  "iir  tenth  in  his  favor,  he  shall  insist 
his  right  to  govern  them  as  their  legitimate  sovereign?  If 
he  is  righ!  in  principle  in  the  one  case,  he  would  unquestion- 
ably be  right  in  the  ether.  If  be  may  rightfully  continue 
ilic  war  against  the  South  to  sustain  the  one,  why  may  he 
not  as  rightfully  turn  his  armies  against  the  North  to  estab- 
lish the  oilier  { 

But  the  timid  among  us  may  Bay*,  how  arc  we  to  meet 

and  repel  his  armies,  il  Mr.  Lincoln  shall  continue  to  reject 

■  terms,    and  shall  be  sustained  by   the  sentiment  of  the 

North  I  as  he  claims  not  only  the  right  to  govern  us,  but  he 
claims  the  right  to  take  from  us  all  that  we  have. 

The  answer  is  plain.  Let  every  man  do  his  duty  ;  and  let 
-  a  people  place  our  trust  in  Gtod,  and  we  shall  certain- 
ly repel  bis  assaults,  and  achieve  our  [ndependence :  and  it 
true  to  ourselves  and  to  posterity,  we  shall  maintain  our 
Constitutional  liberty  also.  The  achievement  of  our  Inde- 
pendence is  s  great  object  ;  but  not  greater  than  the  pres- 
ervation of  Constitutional  liberty.  * 

The  good  man   cannot  read  the   late   proclamation  of  Mr. 

Lincoln,  without  being  struck  with  the  resemblance  between 

it,  and  a  similar  one,  issued  sever.0.!  thousand  years  ago,  by 
Ben-haded,  king  of  Syria.  That  wicked  king,  denied  in  oth- 
ers the  right  of  Self-government ;  and  vaunting  himself  in 
numbers,  and  putting  his  trust  in  chariots  and  lueses,  he  in- 
vaded Israel,  and  beseiged  Samaria  with  an  overwhelming 
force.  When  the  king  of  [s/ael,  with  a  small  hand,  resisted 
his  entrance  into  the  city,  the  Syrian  king  sent  him  this 
message  :  "  Thou  shall  deliver  me-thy  silver  and  thy  gold, 
and  thy  wives,  and  thy  children  :  yet  I  will  send  my  ser- 
vants unto  thee  to-morrow,  about  this  time  ;  and  they  shall 
search  thy  house,  and  the  houses  of  thy  servants;  and  it 
shall  be,  that  whatsoever  is  pleasant  in  thine  eyes,  they  shall 
put  in  their  hands  and  take  it  away."  The  king  oi  Israel 
consulted  the  Elders,  after  receiving  this  arroganl  message, 
and  replied  :  '•  This  thing  I  may  not  do."  Ben-hadad, en  ra- 
ged at  this  reply,  and  confident  of  his  strength,  sent  back 
and  said  : 

"The  Gods  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  the  dust  of  Sa- 
maria shall  suffice,  for  handfuls,  for  all  the  people  that  fol- 
low mo.''      The  king  of  Lrael  answered    and    said  :      "Tell 

him,  Jet  not  him  that  gtrdeth  on  his  harness,  boast   himself 
as  he  that  putteth  ito£" 

The  result  was,  that  the  small  band  of  Israelites  guided 
by  Jehovah,  attacked  the  Syrian  armies  and  routed  them 
with  great  slaughter,  and  upon  a  second  trial    of  strength, 


43 

the  Syrian  armies  were  destroyed  and  their  king  made  cap- 
tive. 

When  Mr.  Lincoln,  following  the  example  of  this- wick- 
ed king,  and  relying  upon  his  chariots,  and  his  horsemen,  and 
his  vast  armies,  to  sustain  a  cause  equally  unjust,  proclaims 
to  us,  that  all  we  have  is  his,  and  that  he  will  send  his  ser- 
vants, whose  numbers  are  overwhelming,  with  arms  in  their 
hand*  to  take  it,  and  threatens  vengeance  if  we  resist,  let 
us — "  Tell  him,  let  not  him  that  girdethon  his  harness  boast 
himself  as  he  that  putteth  it  off."  "The  race  is  not  to  the 
swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong."  "  God  is  the  judge,  he 
putteth  down  one  and  settetli  up  another." 

Not  doubting  the  justice  of  our  cause,  let  us  stand  in  our 
allotted  places;  and  in  the  name  of  Him  who  rules  the  hosts 
of  Heaven,  and  the  armies  of  Earth,  let  us  contiue  to  strike 
for  liberty  and  independence,  and  our  efforts  will  ultimately 
be  crowned   with  triumphant  success. 

JOSEPH  E.  BROWN. 


APPENDIX. 

ACT  OF  SIXTEENTH  CHARLES  I,  CHAPTER  10. 
This  went  into  operation   1st  August,  1641. 

An  Act  for  the  regulating  of  th-3  privy  council,  and  for 
taking  away  the£ourt  commonly  called  the  Star-Chamber. 

WHEKEA.sby  t|y?  Great  Charter  many  times  confirmed  in  par- 
liament, it  is  enacted,  That  no  freeman  shall  he  taken  or  impris- 
oned, or  disseized  of  his  freehold  or  liberties,  or.  ft  ee  customs,  or  be 
outlawed,  or  exiled,  or  otherwise  destroyed  ;  and  that  the  king  will 
not  pass  upon  him,  or  condemn  him,  but  by  lawful  judgment  of  his 
peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land. 

(2.)  And  by  another  statute  made  in  the  fifth  year  of  the 
reign  of  King  Edward,  it  is  enacted,  that  no  man  shall  be 
attached  by  any  accusation,  nor  forejudged  of  life,  or  limb,  nor  his 
lands,  tenements,  goods  nor  chattels  seized  into  the  Kilter's  hands, 
against  the  form  of  the  GREAT  CHARTER  and  the  LAWr    OE  THE 

Land  ; 

(:).)  And  by  another  statute  made  in  the  five  and  twen- 
tieth year  of  the  reign  of  the  same  King  Edward  the  Third, 
it  is  accorded,  assented,  and  established,  that  none  shall  be 
taken  by  petition,  or  suggestion  made  to  the  King,  or  to  his  council, 
unless  it  be  by  indictment  er  presentment  of  good  and  lawful 
people  of  the  same  neighborhood,  where  such  deeds  be  done,  in 
due  manner,  or  by  process  made  by  writ  original  at  the  com- 
mon law  ;  and  that  none  be  put  out  of  his  franchise,  or  fret hold, 
unless  he  be  duly  brought  in  to  answer,  and  forejudged  of 
the  same  by  the  course  of  the  law:  And  if  anything  be  done 
against  the  same,  it  shall  be  redressed,  and  ho/dm  for  none.  (4) 
And  by  another  statute  made  in  the  eight  and  twentieth 
year  of  the  reign  of  the  same  King  Edward  the  Third,  it  is, 


•15 

amo:ii.r>t  Other  tl  i.  That  no  man,  of  what  estate 

<ir  condition  Boever  he  be,   shall  i<  of  his  kinds  atnl 

fenenu  ted,  nor  disinherited^  without  be- 

itr*  brought   in   to   answer  by  DUE    PROCESS    «>i    LAW. 
And  by  another  Btatute  made  in  the  two  and  fortieth  year 
ol  the  reign  of  thesaid  King  Edward  the  Third,  it  is  enac- 
That    no  man  be  put  I  er  without   presentment  be- 

or  matter  of  record,  or  by  due  process  and  writ 
.  nccording  to  the  <»i.l>  LAW  of  the  land:  And  it' 
anj  thing  be  done  to  1  he  contrary,  it  shall  be  void  in  law  and 
holden  for  error.  (<>)  And  by  another  statute  in  the  six  and 
thirtieth  year  ol  the  reign  of  the  same  King  Edward  the 
Third,  it  is,  amongsi  other  things,  Enacted,  That  all  pleas, 
which  shall  be  pleaded  in  any  courts,  before  any  of  the 
King's  justices,  or   in  his  other  places  or  befon  it  his 

other  ministers,  or  in  the  courts  and  places  of  any  other 
lords  .within  this  realm,  shall  be  entered  add  enrolled  in 
Latin.  (7)  And  whereas  by  the  statute  made  in  the  third 
year  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  power  is  given  to  the 
Chancellor,  the  lord  treasurer  of  England,  for  the  time  be- 
ing, am!  the  keeper  ol  the  King's  Privy  seal,  or  tu 
them,  calling  unto  them  a  bishop,  and  a  temporal  lord  of 
the  King' 8  most  honorable  council,  and  the  two  Chiel  jus- 
-  of  the  King's  bench,  and  common  pleas  for  the  time 
being,  or  other  two  justices  in  their  absence,  to  proceed  as 
in  thai  act  is  expressed,  for  the  punisbmenjajpf  some  particu- 
lar offences  therein  mentioned.  (^)  AsjPby  the  statute 
made  in  the  one  and  twentieth  year  oi  King  Henry  the 
Eighth,  the  president  of  the  council  associated  to  join  with 
the  lord  chancellor,  and  other  judges  in  the  said  Btatute  of 

the  third  of  Henry  the  Seventh   mentb d.     (9)   Bu1  the 

said  judges  have  not  kept,  themselves  to  the  points  limited 
by  the  Baid  statute,  but    have  undertaken  to  punish  where 
mi  Inn-  doth  warranty  and  to  make  decrees  for  things,  having 
no  such  authority,  and  to  inflict  heavier  punishmonts,  //<'■•• 
a  hi/  law  is  warranted. 

2.  Am!  forasmuch  as  all  matters  examinable  or  determin- 
able before  the  said  judges  or  in  the  court  commonly  called 
the  suir-cLiniilii  i '•,  may  have  their  proper  remedy  and  redress, 
and  their  due  punishment  and  correction  by  the  common  law 
of  the  land,  and  in  the  ordinary  course  of  justice  elsewhere.  (2) 
And  forasmuch  as  the  reasous  and  motives,  inducing  the 
erection  and  continuance  of  that  court  do  now  cease.  (•'•) 
And  the  proceedings,  Censures,    and  decrees     ol'  that  court, 

have  by  experience  been  found  to  bean  intolerable  burthen 

to  the  subject*  and  the  means  to  introduce  an  arbitrary  V0U> 
er  and  government.  (4)  And  tor  as  much  as  the  council  ta- 
ble hath  of  late  times  assumed  unto  itself,  a  power  to  inter- 
meddle in  civil  and  matters  only  of  private  interest  between 
party  and  party;  and  have  ADVENTURED  to  determine  of 
the  estates  and  liberties  of  the  subjects,  contrary  to  Otr  LAWS  of 


4-5 

th*  LAND,  and  the  Rights  and  Privileges  of  the  subject,  by 
which  great  and  manifold  mischiefs  and  inconveniences  have 
arisen  and  happened,  and  much  incertainty,  by  means  of 
such  proceedings,  hath  been  conceived  concerning  men's 
rights  and  estates  ;  for  settling  whereof  and  Preventing  the 
like  in  time  to  come, 

3.  Be  it  ordained  and  Enacted  by  the  authority  of  this  pres- 
ent parliament,  That  the  said  court  commonly  called  the 
star-chamber,  and  all  jurisdictions,  power  and  authority,  be- 
longing unto,  or  exercised  in  the  saipe  court,  or  by  any  the 
judges,  officers,  or  ministers  thereof,  be  from  the  first  day 
of  August,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  God  one  thousand  six 
hundred  forty  and  one,  CLEARLY  and  ABSOLUTELY 
dissolved,  taken auxi.y,  and  determined.  (2)  And  that  from  the 
said  first  day  of  Augusj;  neither  the  lord  chancellor  or  keep- 
er of  the  Great  seal  of  England,  the  lord  treasurer  of  Eng- 
land, the  keeper  of  the  King's  Privy  seal,  or  president  of 
the  council,  nor  any  bishop,  temporal  lord,  privy  counsel- 
lor or  judge,   or  justice  whatsoever,  shall  have  any  power 

•or  authority  to  hear,  examine  or  determine  any  matter  or 
thing  whatsoever,  in  the  said  court,  commonly  called  the 
Scar-Chamber,  or  to  make,  pronounce,  or  deliver  any  judg- 
ment, sentence,  order  or  decree  ;  or  to  do  any  judicial  or 
ministerial  act  in  the  said  court.  (3)  And  that  all  and  eve- 
ry act  and  acts  of  parliament,  and  all  and  every  article, 
clause,  and  sentence  in  them,  and  every  of  them,  bv  which 
any  jurisdiction,  power  or  authority  is  given,  limited  or  ap- 
pointed unto  the  said  court,  commonly  called  the  Star- 
Cham  her,  or  unto  all,  or  any  of  the  judges,  officers,  or  min- 
isters thereof,  or  for  any  proceedings  to  be  had  or  made  in 
the  said  court,  or  for  any  matter  or  thing  to  be  drawn  into 
(question,  examined  or  determined  there,  shall  for  so  much 
as  concerneth  the  said  court  of  Star-Chambe.r,  and  the  pow- 
er and  authority  thereby  given  unto  it,  be  from  the  fust 
day  of  Augvst  REPEALED  and  ABSOLUTELY  REVOK- 
ED and  made  void. 

4.  And  be  it  likewise  Enacted,  That  the  like  jurisdiction 
now  used  and  exercised  in  the  court,  before  the  president 
and  council  in  the  marches  of  Wales;  (2)  And  also  in  the 
court,. before  the  president  and  council  established  in  the 
northern  ports;  (3)  And  also  in  the  court  commonly  called 
the  court  of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster,  held  before  the  chan- 
cellor and  council  of  that  court;  (4)  And  also  in  the  court 
of  Exchequer  of  the  county  palatine  of  Chester,  held  before  the 
chamberlain  and  council  of  that  court  ;  (•>)  The  like  juris- 
diction being  exercised  there,  shall,  from  the  said  first  day 
of  Angus!  our  thousand  six  hundred  forty-one,  be  also  RE- 
PEALED, and  ABSOLUTELY  REVOKED,  and  mait 
VOID  ;  any  law,  prescription,  custom  or  usage,  or  the  said  stat- 
ute made  in  (he  third  year    of  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  or  the 


16 

statute  made  in  the  one  and  ticenticth  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  or 
any  act  or  acts  of  parliament  htretofon  had  or  made,  to  the  con- 
trary thereof',    in    any  trifle  notwithstanding.      (0)    AND  THAT 

PROM  HENCEF<  »i.'  Ill  N<  >  court,  council  or  PLACE  OP 
JUDICATURE,  SHALL  BE  ERECTED,  ORDAINED, 
CONSTITUTED  OR  APPOINTED  WITHIN  THIS 
REALM  OF  England,  OR  DOMINION  OF  Wain,  WHICH 
SHALL  HAVE,  1  SE,  OR  EXERCISE  THE  SAME,  OB 
THE  LIKE  JURISDICTION,  AS  IS  OR  HATH  BEEN 
USED,  PRACTICEaOB  EXERCISED IM    THE   SAID 

»URTOF  Star-Chamt    . 

■'k  Be  it  likewise  declared,  and  Enacted  by  the  authority 
of  this  present  parliament,  That  neither  hi*  MAJESTY, 
NOR  his  l'KIYY  COUNCIL,  HAVE,  or  OUGHT  TO 
HAVE  any  jurisdiction,  power  or  authority,  by  English  bill,  pe- 
tition, articles,  libels,  or  any  other  ARBITRARY  WAV 
\\  IIATSi  >K\  ER,  to  examine  or  draw  into  <iu<st><>n,  determine 
orditpon  of  the  lands,  tenements,  hereditaments,  goods  or  chattels 
of  ami  o/'thr  subjects  of  this  kingdom  ;  bufthat  th>    •  ht  to 

be  tried,  ami  determined  in  tiki  ordinary  courts  of  justice  and  by 
the  ordinary  course  of  law. 

G.  And  1  >  e  it  further  provided  ami  enacted,  that  if  any  lord 
chancellor  or  keeper  of  the  Great  seal  oi  England  ;  lordtn 
urer,  keeper  of  the  king's  privy  seal,  president  of  the  coun- 
cil, bishop,  temporal  lord,  privy  counsellor,  judge  or  justice 
whatsoever,  shall  offend,  or  do  anything  contrary  to  the  pur 
port,  true  intent,  and  meaning  of  this  law,  then  he  or  they 
for  such  offencej&r/etf  the  sum  FIVE  HUNDRED  I'<  M'NDS 
of  lawful  money  of  England,  untaany  party  grieved,  his  ex- 
ecutors or  administrators,  who  .shall  really  prosecute  for  the 
same,  and  first  obtain  judgment  thereupon  to  be  recovered 
in  any  Court  of  record  at  Westminister,  by  action  of  debt,  bill, 
plaint,  or  infur matron,  wherein  no  essoigo,  protection,  wa- 
ger of  law,  aid  prayer,  privilege,  injunction  or  order  of  re- 
strain:, shall  !■■  in  a.w  WHS  prayed,  granted  or  allowed,  nor 
any  more  than  one  imparlance.  (2)  And  it  any  person, 
against  whom,  any  such  judgment  or  recovery  shall  be  had 
as  aforesaid,  shall,  alter  Buch  judgment  or  recovery,  offend 
again,  in  the  same,  then  he  or  they  lor  such  offence  shall 
forfeit  the  sum  of  ONE  THOUSAND  POUNDS  ot  lawful 
money  ot  England,  unto  any  party  grieved,  his .  xecutors  or 
administrators;  who  shall  really  prosecute  for  the  same,  ami 
first  obtain  judgment  thereupon,  to  be  recovered  in  any 
court,  of  record  at  Westminister,  hy  action  of  deht,  hill,  plaint, 
or  information,  itowhich  no  essoigo,  protection,  wager  of 
law,  aid  prayer,  privilege,  injunction  or  order  of  restraint, 
shall  be  IX  ANY  WISE  prayed,  granted  or  allowed;  nor  any 
more  than  one  imparlance.  (3)  And  if  any  person,  against 
whom  any  such  second  judgment  or  recovery  shall  be  had  as 
aforesaid,  shall  after  such  judgment  of  recovery  offend  again 
in  the  same  kind,  and  shall  be  thereof  duly  convicted  by  in- 


47 

dictment,  information,  or  any  other  lawful  way  or  mean* 

™*  flCr\l^S°l\  S°  convicted  ^all  be  from  thenceforth 
JJlfeABLLD,  and  become,  by  virtue  of  this  act  INCAPA- 
BLE, ipso  facto,  to  bear  las  m>d  their  said  office  and  offices  resncc- 

hohj.  (4)  And  shall  he  likewise  disabled  to  make  any  £S 
grant,  conveyance,  or  other  disposition,  of  any  of  his  lands,  n'ne- 
ments,  hereditaments,  goods  or  chattels  ;  or  to' ma/re  any  benefit   of 

any  gifts ,  convey  anchor  legacy,  to-  his  own  use. 

7.  And  every  person  so  qfenditig,  shall  likewise  forfeit  and 
loose  to  tin  party  grieved,  by  anything  done,  contrary  to  the 
true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  law,  his  trible damages,  which 
he  shall  sustain  and  be  put  unto,  by  means  or  occasion  of 
any  such  act,  or  thing  done  ;  the  same  to  be  recovered  in 
any  of  1ms  Majesty's  courts  of  record  at  Westminister,  by  ac- 
tion of  debt,  bill,  plaint,  or  information,  wnerein  no  essoin 
protection,  wager  of  law.  aid  prayer,  privilege,  injunction, 
or  order  of  restraint,  shall  be  IN  ANY  WISE  prayed,  granted 
or  allowed,  nor  any  more  than  one  imparlance. 

8.  And  be  it  also  provided  and  enacted,  That  if'anv  per- 
son shall  hereafter  be  committed,  restrained  of  his  liberty  or 
suffer  imprisonment,  by  the  order  ordeeree  of  any  such  court 
ol  STAR-CHAMBEB,  or  other  court   aforesaid,  now,  or  at  any 
time  hereafter,  having,  or  pretending  to  have,  the  same,  or 
like  jurisdiction,  power  or  authority,  to  commit  or  imprison 
as   aforesaid;  (9)  Or  by  the  command  or  warrant  of  the 
kings  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors   in   their  own  person  :  or 
by  the  command  or  warrant  of  the  council-board; or  of  any 
of  the  lords,  or  others  of h/s  Mopstifs  priry  council ;  (:j)   That  in 
every  such  case,  every  person  so  committed,  restrained  of  his 
liberty,  or  suffering  imprisonment,  upon  demands  or  motion 
made  by  his  counsel,  or  other  employed  by  him  for  that  eur- 
pose,  unto  the  Judges  of  the  court  of  king's  bench,  or  com- 
mon pleas,  m  open    court,  shall,  without  delay,  upon    any 
pretence  whatsoever,  for  the  ordinary  fees  usually  paid  for 
the  same,  have  forthwith  granted  unto  him  a  Wlit  of  habeas 
corpus,  to  be   directed   generally  unto  all  and  eveiv  sheriff 
gaoler,  minister,  officer,  or  other  person,- in   whose  custody 
the  person  committed  or  restrained,  shall  be.  (4)      \nd  the 
sheriffs,  gaoler,  minister,  officer,  or  other  person,  in  whose 
custody  the  person  so  committed  or  restrained  shall  be,shall 
at  the  return  of  the  said  writ  and  according  to  the  command 
thereof,  upon  due  and  convenient  notice  thereof,  given  unto 
him,  at  the  charge  of  the  party  who  requireth  orprosecuteth 
such  writ,  and  upon  security  by  his  own  bond  given,  to  nay 
the  charge  of  carrying  back  the  prisoner,  if  be  shall  he    re- 
manded by  the  court  to  which  he  shall  be  brought ;  as  in 
like  cases  hath  been  used  ;  such  charges  of  bringing  up,  and 
carrying  back  the  prisoner,  to  he  always  ordered  by  the  court 

if  any  diffeitnce  shall  arise  thereabout ;  bring  or  cause  to  be 
brought,  the  body  of  the  said  party  so  committed  or  restrain- 
ed, unto  and  before  the  Judges  or  justices  of  the  said  court, 


B,   in  open  court.    (6 
shall  then  likewise  certify  the  true  route  of  such,  hit 
i  imprisonment, a&d  thereupon  the  court,  within  three 
;<h   return,  mude*  and  delivered  in  i 

:  .1    determine,  whether  the 

t,  appearing  upon  the  »aid  return, 

•  ipoi    i  o  what  to 

either   by 

r.  (<i)     And   if  anything 

n  i t ted  Jo 

of,  then 
0  flu  jim  ■ 

in    such 
imitcd  and  appoii 
i  d. 
d,  That  this  act  and 

iU-(  HAMBEB  : 
(•-')  And 

,  ,   And  before  the 

I 

ichy  ol  1  bolden 

before tne cfn  ofthat  court  :  (5)  Audi 

in  the  court  i  ounty  palatine  c\  Chester, 

field  before   the  mincil  of  that  court;  (tt) 

And  to  till  courtt  of  like  jurisdiction  (<>  be  hcrcq/)a  I,  or- 

dained, constituted,  or  appoii  aforesaid;  and  to  the 

rants  and  directions  ol  the  council-board,  and  to  the  eaai- 
mitment*  restraint*  and  imjrrisonments  of  any  person  or  persons, 
made,  commanded  or  awarded  by  the  king  $  Majesty ,  hsslunt* 

In  their  own  iter  son,  or  by  the  lords,  and  othm 
ilir  imvy  council'^  and  every  <>n<  of  them. 

And  lastly,  provided  and  bej  d,  That  no  person  or 

ons  shall  Ik-  sued,  impleaded,  molested  oi  troubled,  for 
anv  offence  ngainst  this  pn  Bent  act,  unlessthe  party  sup] 
edtohavi  ill  be.  sued,  or  impleaded  for    the 

same,  within, »/•«  years,  at  the  most,  after  soon  time,  wherein 
the  said  offence  snail  be  committed. 


Hollinger 

PH8.5 

Mill  Run  F3-1955 


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